Madras High Court asks govt to ban disturbing Tik Tok mobile app
05 Apr 2019
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With children increasingly getting lured to the popular lip-syncing app Tik Tok, the Madras High Court on Wednesday issued directions to the government to prohibit download of the app that led to vulgarity and children being enticed by strangers.
Justice Kirubakaran and Justice SS Sundar of the Madurai bench of the Madras high court also issued directions which prohibit television channels from telecasting Tik Tok videos.
The court’s directions to ban comes after the Chinese app reportedly triggered self-harm and anti-social elements made use of the app to lure children.
“The government has to answer whether the Union of India will enact a statute, like Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, enacted by the United States, to prevent the children becoming cyber/online victims.” said the court
The court was hearing a petition which contended that the Tik Tok mobile app 'was containing degrading culture and encouraging pornography besides containing explicit disturbing content and causing social stigma and medical health issue between teens’.
“Majority of the teens are playing pranks, gaffing around with duet videos and sharing with split screen to the strangers. The children who use the said application are vulnerable and may expose them to sexual predators.” the court observed.
The court lamented the apathy on the part of the government and officials concerned on the wellbeing of children even after the menace of the 'Blue Whale' challenge, which was prohibited by the court in suo motu proceedings.
The Blue Whale phenomenon, the court observed, was not a singular app which could have been banned by authorities. Any messaging service could have been used to play the 'game' which reportedly assigned self-harming tasks to recipients.
It may be noted that the Tamil Nadu government had previously sought a ban on the app. In March, Tamil Nadu's information technology minister M Manikandan said in the state assembly that the government would recommend to the centre to ban the app, which it was brought to his notice, was causing rifts within the family.
Created by ByteDance, a Chinese internet technology company, Tik Tok has gained massive popularity across Asia clocking over 500 million users. The app allows users to upload and view lip-synced videos, music and other performances.
Children in India, mostly teen-agers, use it to enact popular videos or film scenes and to share their own versions of it. The app has a variety of filters and editing features that make it attractive.
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