Kyrgyzstan’s authorities have banned the viral social app TikTok, citing its negative effect on children’s mental health.
The Ministry of Culture, Information, Sport, and Youth Policy of Kyrgyzstan has announced its resolution to restrict access to TikTok within the country's borders.
The Ministry of Culture reported that it had received numerous appeals from non-governmental organizations expressing concern about the negative effects of the TikTok social network on the mental development and well-being of children.
The Ministry of Culture conducted an assessment of the content on the social network and determined that the platform does not effectively limit access to content that could be detrimental to the well-being and growth of children. Additionally, the platform lacks the feature for age verification of its users.
"TikTok immerses the user in the virtual world of short clips. After watching them, teenagers try to repeat certain videos, some of which are life-threatening. In addition, the children's psyche is still unstable, it is only being formed, and such content, causing addiction, negatively affects the emotional state of the younger generation," the Ministry of Culture said.
Countries banning TikTok
Kyrgyzstan joins a long list of countries that have already banned the Chinese-owned video app. The US, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, France and the UK banned TikTok on the phones of governmental officers for reasons of national security, as the app might be sharing user data with Chinese authorities.
Earlier, Afghanistan banned the app as it violated Islamic values, and Somalia too, citing explicit content and violent extremism.
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