A mother has revealed her "shock" after witnessing the "quick effect" TikTok had on her 10-year-old daughter after just seven days.
Speaking to news.com.au, a mom by the name of Annika revealed how her daughter had begged her to download TikTok so she could watch "baking videos".
The Melbourne said that she was hesitant at first, but after realizing many of her daughter's friends were on the social media platform, she believed watching a few videos wouldn't cause any harm.
However, the mom later told the publication: "I was shocked that it had such a quick effect on her.
"Within a week she had burst into tears at the dinner table for not being pretty enough — like the girls on TikTok."
Annika reveals that after her daughter's emotional outburst, she refused to let her daughter back on the social media app.
She explained: "It made me realize how sensitive she was and how sensitive she would be in the future for online stuff."
Despite admitting that she didn't know much about TikTok before, Annika said that the ongoing pandemic has made many parents "weaker".
"[Parents] are more likely to agree to that extra hour of screentime and more likely to make concessions," she said.
The mom added: "For years we’ve been trying to keep them away from screens but now they are on there six hours a day for school, then want to go back for gaming and other things. It’s a battle."
After witnessing her own daughter's experiences on the app, the 44-year-old mom watched the new Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma - which she admits has caused her to remove some of her own social media apps from her phone.
Speaking to news.com.au, clinical psychologist Dr Andrew Fuller said that social media can affect some children negatively because they absorb the comments other people make about them.
Dr Fuller explained: "They’re trusting and that’s a risk because if they believe everything everyone says about them, they can end up with a very negative view of themselves.
"Before they are 13 (years old) you’ve got to be pretty careful because kids might not evaluate things in a logical way that an adult might."
Despite social media helping so many of us to stay connected with friends and loved ones - especially over the last year - Dr Fuller says that parents have to make a judgment about their own child's maturity when it comes to letting them access social media.
"When you’re a young teenager, you imagine the world is always looking at you, how pretty you are, how you talk, how skinny you are. Social media amplifies that," he said.
Social media can truly be a wonderful thing, and something we've all seen the benefits of. But when is the right age to let our children start setting up their own accounts?
