TikTok is currently the world's most popular social media app, surpassing Google as the most visited website as of last December. It is known for its short, engaging content of 5 seconds to 3 minutes, and according to a study done by HootSuite, the app gets about 8 new users per second.
For those unfamiliar with the platform, the app may be associated with young people who create dance trends to match popular music, or its hyper-specific algorithm seems to figure out a person's interests in a matter of minutes. However, different types of content ......TikTok nudes appear regularly on the For You pages of many users.
Many of these seem to have started during the pandemic, when people were stuck at home with no choice but to find new ways to entertain themselves. Perhaps it was almost fated to lock struggling people in and weirdness was inevitable. the TikTok community guidelines state directly: "We strive to create a platform where people feel welcome and safe. We do not allow nudity, pornography or erotic content to be posted on our platform. We also prohibit content that depicts or supports non-consensual sexual behavior, the sharing of non-consensual intimate images, and adult sexual solicitation." Multiple sections have been added to these guidelines detailing how the app does not tolerate the sexual exploitation of adults or minors, and any nudity or pornographic content produced by or including minors in general. Nonetheless, these acts are not innocent.
Vice has reported on groups of predators who use the app to search for nude photos of young boys and girls. This is a problem that TikTok has been trying to combat, but their filters seem to be missing the actual content in question, ultimately targeting and punishing completely innocent creators. There have been cases of women breastfeeding their children in front of the camera (with no sign of nudity), being taken down for nudity, and some absolutely ridiculous cases, such as a video of Sims 4 characters eating grilled cheese being taken down - for "nudity"! " These channels are shadow-banned and sometimes completely removed, while the real perpetrators slip through the cracks. Interestingly, I myself reported the sexual content on the app and saw the report returned to me with "no violations of the guidelines found. Obviously, most reports are handled through automation, but if TikTok really wants to fix this, they either need to have real people sifting through the reports or upgrade the censors to better identify those who expose themselves on camera. It's as simple as saying "secs" or "segs" instead of sex to stay unnoticed. Many users also avoid censorship by including the word "fake body" in videos of themselves wearing revealing clothing or containing inappropriate content in pictures/videos. Obviously, this system doesn't work. They either need real people to screen the reports or upgrade the censors to better look for people who expose themselves on camera. It's as simple as saying "secs" or "segs" instead of sex to stay unnoticed. Many users also avoid censorship by including the word "fake body" in videos of themselves wearing revealing clothing or containing inappropriate content in pictures/videos. Obviously, this system doesn't work. They either need real people to screen the reports or upgrade the censors to better look for people who expose themselves on camera. It's as simple as saying "secs" or "segs" instead of sex to stay unnoticed. Many users also avoid censorship by including the word "fake body" in videos of themselves wearing revealing clothing or containing inappropriate content in pictures/videos. Obviously, this system doesn't work.
I want to clarify that the purpose of this article is not to say that the human body should always be considered a sexual object. In fact, this is exactly the situation that creators such as those banned from breastfeeding mothers are trying to create. The question that needs to be questioned is why in particular so many young people are making explicit pornography TikTok. what will gain? Looking back to the beginning of 2021 for some insight into this phenomenon, I found an article Wired wrote about how TikTok "accidentally conquered the porn industry. In this article, author Daisy Schofield goes on to explain how TikTok has become an essential marketing tool for many sex workers, who use trends on the app to promote their content on porn platforms and grow their audiences. The problem here is that many minors on the app have seen the content and started jumping up and down, sparking arguments from concerned adults who really aren't sexualizing themselves by posting videos of lingerie, bikinis or other revealing outfits. The situation is getting trickier and more complicated for users on the app, with many innocent channels getting caught in the crossfire every time TikTok cracks down on these creators (as shown in the example above).
Overall, I'm very pro-licensing as long as you're of age and as long as you really want to be, in terms of choosing to be explicit or general. There is a lot of adult-centric shaming, especially by young women, to "show off" their bodies when they are really just wearing what they want. By all means, there should be no shame in flaunting your body, and we shouldn't over-sexualize it in the first place. But that's a whole different conversation. In the modern sexual liberation movement, I find that a lot of the emotional problem is that there is still an atmosphere of shaming those who feel more comfortable not revealing what they have, this need to treat those who don't like it to feel comfortable with the sexual act. In this case, it becomes less about liberation and more about predatory coercion masquerading as progress. In fact, I often hear about content on TikTok where the creators will glorify sex without properly educating on safe practices. Often, these videos are targeted at girls who are about to turn 18 and can "make a lot of money" by selling themselves online. No matter how you look at it, there is no morality in encouraging minors to become sex workers before they reach adulthood. That's disgusting.
Even ignoring that, I just don't think TikTok is necessarily a platform for sexual liberation or indulgent pornographic content. Sex workers and sexual liberationists do deserve a platform where they can freely express themselves and create their lives, but I really don't think it's responsible or safe to use TikTok as that avenue. About 25% of users are between the ages of 10 and 19, and the vast majority of them are minors who, accidentally or not, would gain nothing from being exposed to such explicitly pornographic content. I shouldn't have to open the video section to view popular themed tabs (like Adult Swim Trends) and watch porn - because kids do, too.
Of course, apps are always changing and introducing viewers to new trends every day. Maybe TikTok Sex and TikTok in general will be filtered out exactly - sooner or later. I'm not an algorithm expert, so I can't predict what we'll see next. I just hope that more awareness of the dark side of apps can be spread to younger users, and I hope that adult creators will choose to be more aware of their possible audience moving forward.