Mum in the Philippines finds daughter, 4, hanging herself in attempt to copy TikTok video

“She saw a video of a kid hanging him/herself and then she tried copying it using the Venetian blinds pull cords in our bedroom. She wrapped her neck 3 times then jumped [sic]," Ordinario wrote.

Appalled, she asked her child what she saw in the video. The girl responded in Filipino, saying: “The neck was wrapped with a cord and then the child became a ghost.”

“My innocent 4-year-old almost lost her life”

“Thank God I was there when it happened. (sic)” Ordinario said. “I just can’t imagine... What if I weren’t there at the time? What if I went to the toilet? What if I went out to buy something?”

Ordinario also warned parents whose kids might be exposed to the same dangerous TikTok video, and urged them to keep an eye on their kids, especially the type of content they consume online.

“My innocent 4 yo baby girl almost lost her life because of some stupid Tiktok video. (sic) That’s why parents, please, pay proper attention to your kids as well as what they watch.”

Dangerous TikTok Video, challenges

This isn’t the first time that content from the video-sharing app has raised alarms about the safety of users — particularly, children.

Earlier in February, a viral TikTok video challenge called ‘Skull-breaker” resulted in unsuspecting youths to get injured in school. 

Among the reported cases involved a young boy in Arizona who injured his head after he was tricked into jumping by his schoolmates — in an attempt to execute the challenge. He fell a second time as he lost consciousness while trying to get back on his feet.

Last November, a 16-year-old girl from Brazil, a victim of such a prank, died after hitting her head on the ground.

While it appears that the trend has yet to catch on in Singapore, parents and experts here issued stern warnings.

10 ways to keep you and your children safe while using TikTok:

With the popularity of social media today, your child is at risk of being exposed to dangerous challenges and malicious content online. While TikTok assures content moderation is in place, as a parent, you can do your part in keeping your children safe while using the platform.

Sharing with theAsianparent, Doreen Tan, TikTok Singapore's user and content operations manager, highlights safety features parents can take advantage of on the app.

1. Age gate

A feature that only allows users who are 13 and above to create an account, it prevents under-aged children from using the platform.

2. Screen time management

This feature allows users to limit their time spent on the application to 40, 60, 90, 120 minutes per day. Any further usage beyond the set limit would require users to re-enter their passwords.

3. Restricted mode

This account setting protects minors with a machine-learning Artificial Intelligence that filters out content that may not be age-appropriate. It is optional and exists so that users can take control of the content they watch and receive. Once selected, this mode can only be reverted by entering a password.

4. In-app suicide prevention

This feature redirects users to an in-app suicide resource page that offer tips and hotlines so that users are able to receive help.

5. Risk warning tag

This functionality is added to notify viewers that a video may not be desirable for general consumption.

6. Comment filter feature

Allows the user to self-define up to 30 keywords from the comments in English and the user’s local language. This list can be altered at any given point.

7. Parental control 

Made up of screen time management and restricted mode. Parents are encouraged to set a password for these features together to limit their children’s time spent on TikTok such that they would only be able to use the app when parents/guardians are able to monitor their TikTok activity.

8. In-app reporting

This function allows users to report inappropriate content or behaviour on TikTok to be reviewed and taken action upon.

9. Privacy settings

With this safety feature, users are able to:

• Decide who is allowed to follow them
• Decide who is allowed to send comments
• Decide who is allowed to react to their videos
• Decide who is allowed to take part in a duet
• Decide who can send them messages
• Avoid undesirable content to be downloaded
• Create and edit a block list

10. TikTok is compliant with local laws and regulations to preserve the safety of user data

• Works with leading third-party cloud services and data storage partners to store and protect users’ information in a multitude of locations including the US and Singapore.
• Local laws and regulations are strictly abided to protect data privacy. In Europe, TikTok complies with the GDPR and in the US, abides by the federal, state, and local privacy protection laws.
• TikTok’s Privacy Policy is transparent and articulates what data is collected and how that data is processed.

This article was first published in theAsianparent.