Family Tech Blog

Tag: mtv

  • Musical.ly’s New Original Shows Could Undermine Your Internet Safety Goals

    Musical.ly’s New Original Shows Could Undermine Your Internet Safety Goals

    Musical.ly has joined the ranks of the social media apps that are bringing original show content to user’s feeds. The lip sync music video producing platform launched a couple of shows today. One of the shows is from MTV/Viacom and one is from Seventeen Magazine, with two more from the same companies coming out on Saturday.  New shows are also coming from NBC, E!, and Telemundo. Musical.ly isn’t charging networks for this content or even selling ads for it, they’re really just using it as a test for future network deals. Whether or not this programming will provide value to the social media platform is yet to be seen. What is very apparent, however, is that there will be more content for your kid to watch than just the lip sync videos they’ve enjoyed thus far.

    What Parents Should Know

    Musical.ly is on my uninstall list because there is no age verification. Users can log in and watch other people’s videos without telling Musical.ly how old they are. This means you don’t know who’s watching you or sending you private messages. Most of the trending video sections are filled with tween and teen girls and boys acting out the different challenges or songs. The lack of age verification has brought some criticism to Musical.ly and many didn’t like their CEO’s response to such criticism. It seems they’re happy to allow people of any age to use the service without proving their age.

    My advice is pretty obvious. I recommend you uninstall Musical.ly. Mostly because I wouldn’t allow my kids to use an app where they can be contacted by anyone and everyone regardless of age and gender. The addition of these new shows just strengthens my belief that Musical.ly can undermine your internet safety goals. Content on these shows can reach outside the boundaries of what is allowed on TV. Unless you’re watching every episode of the original shows Musical.ly puts on their trending feed, you have no real way of knowing what your kids are consuming. Musical.ly will stay on my uninstall list and if I had the list in any particular order it would probably move up the rankings as well.

  • Early Spring Cleaning on the Snapchat Discover Page. 

    Early Spring Cleaning on the Snapchat Discover Page. 

    Last fall I shared a video about my distaste for Snapchat. It wasn’t about the images being shared as much as some of the inappropriate things you could find on their Discover page. This week Snap Inc. has announced that they’re going to be cracking down on inappropriate images, clickbait, and fake news in their Discover feed.

    Since the company is soon going to release shares to the public they’ve decided that their Discover page should be more serious about how users get their news. They will be asking publishers to use an age gate for images that might be deemed inappropriate for younger users. This gauge gate will not apply for folks who are older but could help parents keep some of our younger teens from seeing things we don’t want them to see.

    Since the Discover page came out a couple of years ago it is becoming one of the main sources of news for the young users on Snapchat. This fact is another major reason Snap Inc. has decided to clean up some of the content. Publishers like MTV and Cosmopolitan have been accused of posting images that some call obscene. This will have to stop soon since the new regulations take effect this week and the age gate will apply as early as next month.

    What Should Parents Know

    This latest news confirms my concerns about the Snapchat discover page. Thankfully it’s news that includes fixing some of the problems I had with it. My recommendation is that parents keep tabs on what your kids are doing on Snapchat. Take a look at the Discover page every few days yourself and see what news articles are being shared and what images are being used to promote them.

    It is also important to pay attention to how you get your news. Not checking facts and falling for clickbait isn’t just a problem with young social media users. This is something that is been in the news for all people lately. Lead by example and be sure to talk with your kids about how they use social media, where they get their news, and how they can find out if it’s accurate or appropriate before they share.