Is Musical.ly Safe for your Kid?

Musical.ly has become an obsession for my daughter.  It has become an obsession for her friends too.  As a mom I’m concerned about her safety on this social media site but I don’t want her to become socially isolated by restricting her from it completely.

What to do???  I decidedly to dive deeper into the world of Musical.ly to come up with a plan.

What is Musical.ly

For those of you that haven’t heard of it yet (lucky!) Musical.ly is an app for smartphones that allows kids to make pretty cool videos of them dancing, lip-synching or really whatever they chose to document.  Musical.ly says it is for 13+ but I found videos from kiddos much younger.  The site encourages sharing and networking.

I can see why making fun videos and sharing them with her friends is fun for Pickles but as I have written here before her ADHD has caused some big problems with various electronics around our house.

Privacy Control

Here’s the good news!!  You can set controls on your child’s account so that only approved friends can see their videos and send messages.  Here’s how:

 

Also, it’s important to know that although you took the precautions to set the privacy controls any information listed in your child’s profile is public…anyone can see it!!

The Bad News

The search function on Musical.ly has no filters.  Kids can search for whatever they want and sometimes the results can be well…not at all something you want your kid seeing.  Musical.ly users can report explicit or inappropriate content and Musical.ly reserves the right to take down any content they find inappropriate.  Beware content is not pre-screened.

Also, once your kid creates an account you cannot delete it.  Yep, you read that right you cannot delete it.  One thing I did find in my research is if your kiddo (under 13 years of age) created an account you can report it to Musical.ly and they will take it down.  I’m definitely going to threaten this little gem just in case the temptation to say start following celebrities becomes too great.

At first I found Musical.ly  a little disturbing but now that I’ve spent some time figuring it out I think I can work out an arrangement with Pickles that will work for both of us.  The majority of videos are super cute and creative.  Plus, it’s an opportunity to have an open dialogue about safe use of social media.

What are your thoughts?  Please comment below.