Teens Won’t Trade Scrolling for Cyber-Security

What the Tiktok ban told us about our Generation

Tiktok, the popular social media platform used by over 1 billion people, including 170 million Americans, skyrocketed in fame in 2020 and since has remained a critical piece of youth culture. 

Trends, pop culture, digital friendships, and influencers have all contributed to teen investment in the app, as it has become part of daily life for over 60% of teenagers, according to a 2024 Pew Research Center survey.

However, its wild success has not been unaccompanied with controversy. Wariness around the ownership, specifically, has been circulating ever since the launch. For context, Tiktok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese private company. Due to the high degree of sensitive user content entrusted in the app (such as location, personal identities, and contact information), the US government has had long standing concerns over the safety of such information in ByteDance’s hands. Specifically, the US feared the company may sell the information to the Chinese government, which could endanger US citizens' safety, as well as manipulate the information supplied by the app.

Hoping to force Tiktok into new, American ownership, the US instituted a federal ban on the app in January of 2025. Although the ban was extremely short lived, lasting only 14 hours total, the fallout was both shocking and enlightening.

Knowledge of the forthcoming ban was circulating well before it went into effect, so much of the backlash occurred in anticipation, rather than after the fact of the ban. Teens were outraged, panicked, and devastated at the news of their impending loss (this is a dramatic description, but not inaccurate). In fact, there was a sizable mass release of “drafts” - unreleased/private TikTok videos - where users posted their drafts in an effort to squeeze whatever life they could out of the app in its final moments. 

However, the most interesting effect of the fourteen-hour ban on TikTok was the digital migration towards other Chinese-owned apps, specifically Rednote. Rednote is an app that, much like Tiktok, displays short videos on a feed, enabling users to connect with one another and engage with customizable content. 

This shift was a deliberate act of resistance against the government, as well as an embodiment of the simple fact that teenagers are either unaware or simply irreverent towards cyber safety.

Teenagers find community and entertainment online at the cost of their safety. This tradeoff has become extremely normalized in Gen-Z, as so much of social life and pop culture is found online. Lacking social media can often stimulate feelings of exclusion and FOMO, so in order to feel connected, having some form of social media often feels necessary. Yet by putting oneself online, one risks cyber safety. However, as the TikTok ban so dramatically demonstrated, the connection teenagers find online may make it worth the risk.

Bea Gerau ‘26