Topics: TikTok, US News, Social Media, Education
Are TikTok trends going too far? If they’re causing a disturbance in schools, then maybe.
We all love a little scroll every now and then, and some of us might even go as far as to upload a clip on the whim.
But it’s not like we’re doing it at school, or work… is it? Well, dear reader, apparently we are.
After middle schoolers in North Carolina couldn’t stop filming TikTok videos in the bathrooms, they’ve now had their mirror privileges revoked.
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According to the Alamance-Burlington School System, Southern Alamance Middle School removed the restroom mirrors to deter students from leaving class to shoot clips.
They even detailed how some pupils cut class and visited the bathroom up to nine times a day.
Les Atkins, the public relations officer for the school system, told WFMY: “Students were going to the bathroom for long periods of time and making TikTok videos.”
Atkins went on to explain that the mirrors had been featured a number of times in the videos on the app and that even though it’s an odd punishment, it’s already working.
Atkins said: “Not as many visits to the bathroom, not staying as long and students are held accountable and then when there’s accountability you see a great difference.”
The school district also created a new system for digital passes which allows students to check in and out of class so that the school can track how long they are spending away from the classroom during the day.
According to the school, these ‘adjustments’ that have been made are just one step toward reaching the district’s goal of educating children about what it calls ‘digital citizenship.’
Atkins explained: “We’re trying to educate students: we all have cell phones now. We have to learn to use them. We have to learn when to put them down.”
This news comes just months after experts in the US tech space warned that Gen Z were growing addicted to TikTok and that this reliance was growing.
They argued that the continual scrolling and mindless watching associated with the app would force them into dependence.
The app has since been banned in Montana, which is now the first to do so as they claim to be saving their constituents from ‘Chinese Communist Party surveillance.’
And this is far from the first instance of TikTok being in hot water.
Parents are now banding together in hopes of bringing the social media platform down after claiming that the latest trend or new thing is causing the issues seen in young people.
ClaimsHero, a company that says they don’t offer legal services but rather help people ‘communicate with lawyers and support [them] in managing their claim during the arbitration process’, is representing parents who are warning that the popular social media platform is dangerous.
The lawsuit has at least 5,000 parents involved as they want to bring more people on board to raise awareness about the dangers of the app.
The ClaimsHero website reads: “An Algorithm poisoning America’s Youth: TikTok is a weapon targeted at America’s youth. Its search algorithm turns the platform into a drug – featuring relentless violent, sexual, and even suicidal content that targets children as young as 12 years old.”
