I’ve taken on an exhausting task. It’s interesting and enlightening both in positive and negative ways. I’ve been reviewing terms of service and privacy policies of different social media apps that I know our students are using. The exhausting part is because of just how long these documents are. I mean, I knew they were long, but when you force yourself to read them, well, your eyes start to unfocus and your brain starts to wander and holy heck! I get why they’re there. Companies have to cover their butts. They have to explain every.little.thing they will and will not share, they will and will not do, they do and do not expect. If not, assumptions are made and harm is done and lawsuits happen. These documents are a necessary evil. But there’s so long and so complicated and so many have such legal speak that the regular person is just not going to read them. And kids? No, they’re not going to read them. So the majority of people click “agree” and move on with their lives and have no idea what they just agreed to.
I started with TikTok (formerly
musical.ly) because I hear about that a lot. This is a video creation and sharing app. My assumption was that their terms of service would make clear that no users under the age of 13 were allowed. The Age of Internet Enlightenment, it seems. Well, that’s the first thing I got wrong. Turns out, the first age mentioned was 18. Yeah, apparently you’re not supposed to have an account without the permission of a parent or legal guardian. But there’s no check box for that. There’s no, “email this to your parents and make sure they respond before we create your account.” So, while there’s a requirement, there’s no follow through. There’s just the assumption that my 15 year old and my 17 year old both asked me for permission. They didn’t, by the way.
The next surprising age related mention was that there is a privacy policy for “Younger Users.” That’s younger than 13. Wait, what? Oh sure, they can have accounts, too. But, in addition to requiring parent permission (with no follow through), these younger users do get extra privacy. Mainly, while pretty much anything and everything is collected on older than 13 users, only username, password and birthday care collected for Younger Users. Well, that and all of their device information which includes their usage time, device type and IP address. The best part of TikTok is the sharing, right? Well, Younger Users can not publicly share any personal information - including videos. Guess who is NOT going to say they’re 10?
So I agreed to the terms of service and was immediately taken into a video that told me all about the testicles, ovaries, the sack, the uterus, the shaft and learned why “some men act like bitches.” I was not logged in. I had created no account. I double checked. So… Younger Users get to see it all. I’m pretty sure I don’t want my 10 year old to hear that content.
Even though I was breaking the TOS by doing so (because you are not allowed to falsify any information), I decided to create an account with my birth year as 2009. I was told I would be given a more appropriate experience of TikTok but… well, I’d already learned about men being bitches so…. My experience as a Younger User didn’t seem to limit the videos but that first one didn’t come up again. Not that I looked for it. When I created a video, I could only save it to my drafts. I couldn’t publish it, I couldn’t save it to my camera roll. My Younger User self got bored pretty quick.
I logged out as my Younger User self and decided to try to be 15. This time I had to enter an email address or phone number. This time, when I created a video, I was allowed to hashtag it, set it’s privacy (default to public) and comments (default to off). I could also download it and share via Twitter or Instagram. I didn’t do any of that because frankly it was a terrible video.
So, age requirements are in place to keep kids safe, right? But there’s no check before you start watching videos, and no protection FROM the videos and WHO READS THE TERMS OF SERVICE?
And the privacy policy? Basically, TikTok says the User owns everything but TikTok can use it however and whenever they want. And also, they can change it, so better save a local copy if you want it intact. No really, they say that. And even though you own the content, you’re not allowed to make any money on the content. Even if you publish it on another site. Only TikTok is allowed to make the money. Hmmm…
Instagram had the same content agreement. They don’t claim ownership, but by using the service you give them free reign on the use of your content. Instagrams terms of service seemed a lot kinder, if that’s possible. It was as if they wanted to make sure you, the user, felt appreciated and loved why they laid out all of the terms of protecting their butts. But pretty much, the agreements were the same with content restrictions with the exception of Instagram addressing Younger Users.
I feel like Twitter had the most plain and easy to understand privacy policy and terms of service. It was clear exactly what users could potential see of your profile and they even mentioned being tagged in photos. They mentioned direct messages and non public communication and even reminded users with highlighted text the recipients of direct messages have their own copy of the communication which you are not able to delete nor have control over.
While, like TikTok, a user does not have to be logged in to see content on Twitter, unlike TikTok, establishing an account with an email did require a verification code. It felt like one more step that would help prevent or discourage younger kids from creating accounts.
Reading terms of service and privacy policies are certainly tedious - much like reading this verbose blog post - but as a parent and an educator, it’s clear that reading them is necessary. I’m reminded of the messages on FaceBook that seem to happen in waves where a user will post a message TO FaceBook claiming their content is private to them and FaceBook isn’t allowed to use it. Suddenly everyone is worried about their content and posts the same thing on their timeline. As adults, users don’t all seem to realize that by using a service, you agree to their terms and nothing you post or say can change that. And when allowing our children to use these services, it’s important to discuss the policies and exactly what they mean.
What concerns me is how easy it is for children to create accounts and, because they don’t read the terms of service, not even realize they aren’t authorized to use the site. It’s clear that many sites don’t seem to really care how easy that is and only do the bare minimum at protecting our students. So the rest of us need to step it up.
