Dad Wonders If He’s Wrong for Reporting His 9-Year-Old Daughter’s TikTok Account

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Those of us who had the privilege of growing up without the internet often have a better grasp on its potential dangers. We can imagine how all of our preteen and teenage missteps and mistakes could have made a bad situation much worse. After all, the internet is a digital record of whatever you decide to share. And in the years before your brain has fully developed, it’s best to keep some things private.

Most of us get this, but some of us don’t. Things can get tricky when one parent wants to allow their child to explore the internet and the other wants to protect them from it.

This dad is not OK with his daughter being on TikTok at all.

One father wondered if he had taken things too far in the name of protection and he reached out to the Reddit community for answers. In a post, the father asked the community if he was being an a–hole in the way he responded to learning that his 9-year-old daughter had a TikTok account.

He stumbled across the account and immediately asked his daughter about it. The girl told him that her mother knew about it. He went to her mother and expressed his disapproval, saying that he wasn’t OK with it at all.

The OP said his daughter's mother brushed him off.

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Interestingly enough, the child’s mother didn’t share his concern. The OP said she “brushed it off and told me all the parental controls she was putting in place.” The OP acknowledged that he may be overprotective but he doesn’t believe that children that young should be on the internet without a high level of supervision from an adult.

So, he decided to take matters into his own hands. “After my concerns were brushed to the side the only thing I can do is to have the account taken down. Guidelines state no one under 13,” he wrote.

'There's a reason for the age minimum,' one user noted.

The OP has since reported all of his daughter’s videos on TikTok in an effort to get her account removed from the platform entirely. He wondered if he was in the wrong for taking such drastic measures.

The people of Reddit almost unanimously agreed that he was not the a–hole. Still, they did offer some other strategies for handling this situation.

“NTA, but if i may i think this would be a good opportunity to have a sit down conversation with your daughter about internet safety,” one person advised. “And also a conversation with your wife. Unfortunately, all kids are naive and hopeful that everyone has good intentions, but as another comment said, there is a reason why tiktok has a 13 year old age minimum.”

One user thinks TikTok is dangerous in the hands of young people.

Other people shared their experiences of the young people in their lives using the app prematurely. “My older sister found my younger sisters TikTok years ago,” one user shared. “It had videos of my younger sister outside of her school with the school logo and everything. Very dangerous in the hands of young kids.”

Another person shared that a young person recognized later that it was too much, too soon. “My little sister is 14 and she got on TikTok when she was 10 or something,” another user explained. “She told me she wished I stopped her from getting on that app so young.”

'Let her have an unplugged life for a while longer,' one user said.

Ultimately, people agreed that the OP is right to be concerned. Nine is too young for TikTok or any other social media app. One person commented that as co-parents, the two should be able to come to an agreement that their child shouldn’t be on social media until they reach the age requirements for the app in question.

“Let her have an unplugged life for a while longer,” one user wrote.

We agree. The internet will likely be a part of her life for decades to come. There’s no need to rush it.