by Penny M. & Kalii H.

The popular social media platform, Tiktok, got banned and unbanned in the span of 24 hours. This is because there were some government concerns of potential user data collection and influence operations by the people of the People’s Republic of China. But then, President Donald Trump put the ban on hold 12 hours later. Now Trump is planning to ban it again on June 19, 2025.

We made a survey to see what Mendocino K-8 students thought about the Tiktok ban, and someone said during the break from TikTok they felt more calm and zen. Student, Kaylee M., said, “My baby girl kept yapping and crashed out when Tiktok was banned.” (Baby girl means her friend.)

The main concern of parents, users, and critics is the effect on mental health and how safe your data is. Tiktok affects your mental health in many different ways; many things you see online are fake causing teens and preteens to be insecure or cause low self esteem.

Tik Tok also has some good sides to it, according to some websites. It’s a social media platform and a lot of influencers’ jobs are to make videos for Tiktok. People can use the app to make videos and post them, share things and connect with people around the world, as long as you’re 13 years old or older. Unfortunately, while Tiktok’s terms and conditions say that you have to be 13 years or older to use the app, many younger people lie about their age, and there’s no method to prove it. Younger kids with unfettered access to the internet is not good, and we should put more filters on Tiktok to make it safer for the next generations to come.