{"id":12181,"date":"2023-04-25T14:21:30","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T14:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/?p=12181"},"modified":"2025-04-23T09:32:38","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T09:32:38","slug":"how-is-chinas-version-of-tiktok-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/how-is-chinas-version-of-tiktok-different\/","title":{"rendered":"Is China’s version of TikTok really safer for young people?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As TikTok fights for its life in the West, and pundits sling mud at the app\u2019s differing treatment of children at home and abroad \u2013 does any of it matter if it ultimately leads to better outcomes for young people using social media?<\/h2>\n

From Liz Truss\u2019 tirade against TikTok as a \u201cthreat to children’s safety\u201d, to American senator Richard Blumenthal\u2019s concern that \u201cTikTok\u2019s policies and practices for children and teens are fundamentally different in the United States and China\u201d \u2013 most politicians in the West have zeroed in on the Chinese video app more than any other in their fight back against social media\u2019s vice like grip on their country\u2019s youngest citizens.<\/p>\n

Known for its viral dance videos and micro crazes \u2013 remember the Mannequin Challenge? \u2013 TikTok is now the biggest app in the world, with over a billion users who spend almost an hour a day scrolling.<\/p>\n

So is the hysteria justified? Is China\u2019s version of TikTok \u2013 better known as Douyin \u2013 really a watered-down app with greater protections in place for kids? And are those in the West simply escalating tensions with China every time the app is singled out?<\/p>\n

\"launchpad<\/a><\/p>\n

There was certainly something ironic about the metaphor former Google employee Tristan Harris used to describe TikTok\u2019s Chinese parent company Bytedance on an episode of 60 Minutes <\/em>last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost like they recognise that technology is influencing kids\u2019 development, and they make their domestic version a spinach version of TikTok, while they ship the opium version to the rest of the world\u201d, he told host Bill Whitaker.<\/p>\n

The \u2018spinach version\u2019 he was referring to, of course, is Douyin, the original Chinese app launched into the local market in 2016 \u2013 a year before the internationalised version, TikTok, made its way onto the Apple and Android app stores.<\/p>\n

Students of history familiar with the Opium Wars in China \u2013 when Britain attempted to address a trade imbalance by illegally flooding China with opium, creating millions of addicts in the process \u2013 will find the comparison between TikTok and the addictive drug a little too on the nose if they\u2019re looking for reasons to call either side a hypocrite.<\/p>\n

But the idea that children in China are fed content on Douyin that promotes everything from maths and science to athletic achievement rather than more frivolous content is true.<\/p>\n