Last week, I started the weekly series Apps Every Parent Needs to Know About with some information about the Buzzfeed app. (Click on over if you missed it!)
Today’s app: Musical.ly (similar app: Dubsmash)
Another rated 12+ app on the books today. I discovered Musical.ly because some of the youth group kids I follow post videos from it and I’ve heard their moms talk about it, too.
MY BRAIN: THIS MUST BE POPULAR. LET’S DOWNLOAD IT FOR RESEARCH.
MY HEART AFTER EXPLORING FOR HALF AN HOUR: THESE. LITTLE. GIRLS.
Musical.ly’s Purpose:
According to musical.ly’s website, “musical.ly is a video community that allows you to create, share, and discover short videos.”
App Age Rating:
The Musical.ly app, rated 12+ in various app stores, for a variety of “Infrequent/Mild,” sex or mature suggestive themes, crude humor, alcohol/drug references and violence. However, in the Terms of Service (TOS), it says,
“THE SERVICE IS NOT FOR PERSONS UNDER THE AGE OF 13 OR FOR ANY USERS PREVIOUSLY SUSPENDED OR REMOVED FROM THE SERVICE BY MUSICAL.LY.IF YOU ARE UNDER 13 YEARS OF AGE, YOU MUST NOT USE OR ACCESS THE SERVICE AT ANY TIME OR IN ANY MANNER. Furthermore, by using the Service, you affirm that you are at least 18 years of age.”
Don’t worry. It’s not a typo. You are reading this correctly. Somehow, in some magical world, you will equally be ages 13 and 18 at the same time and when this phenomenon occurs, you can use Musical.ly. Just like BuzzFeed, the TOS warrants a user has to be 18 or older to access the site, however there is no verification process for either the website or the app, and the app is not rated 17+ (as there is no 18+ or adult classification in the Apple App Store. Other app stores do have 18+/adult classifications). And as you’ll see as we continue, I’d reckon most of the users are under the age of 18.
What You Need to Know:
While there isn’t much explicit content (at least at first glance), it’s easy to see that pre-teen girls have taken over this app like a sale on Hello Kitty pajamas at the store Justice. Sure, there are guys and people in their 20s (I really didn’t see anyone over the age of 25), but mostly? I’m seeing girls 16 years old and younger. Here are some screen grabs I took.
And yes, while there is nothing inherently wrong with tweens singing 15-second soundbites of popular songs or quoting popular movies, or posting up their own movies…(wait), if me, a non-creepy almost-36-year-old-sexuality-researching-author can mostly anonymously create an account and access these videos, who else can?
(Pauses to let you answer).
If that’s not concerning enough, let me share with you the most disturbing part of this app.
YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE VIDEOS AND NOBODY HAS TO KNOW.
Sure, there are privacy settings (see below)…
…but the amount of public, open accounts is VAST. As you can see, you can also share them with anyone you’d like).
Now, before the “I can’t believe you posted videos of strange, underage girls!” emails/comments, note that these videos were already shared MANY times on Twitter and on other social media outlets. These girls didn’t have any privacy set up, so their videos were able to be shared and downloaded by anybody. To protect who/where they are, the videos are saved on my private Dropbox and I don’t have them linked to their actual Musical.ly profiles.
The Good:
musical.ly is Rated Ages 12+ which, if parents have downloads restricted to this age group, will prevent younger children from viewing the material. Musical.ly can be a fun way to connect over popular songs and movies. It can be silly and in some ways, a great way to explore creative composition with photography and videography. Because the content is user-generated, there’s always something new to watch.
The Bad:
As with BuzzFeed, many parents restrict app download for teens to the 12+ rating. But even as musical.ly’s TOS states, nobody under the age of 18 should be using it. And anyone with the app (12 years +) can access the material (and share it) easily. We all know how society, and social media, lend to a “make your own fame” culture. Teen girls are especially susceptible to looking for attention online. (Really. It’s been studied. I’m not generalizing.)
Musical.ly Conversation Starters:
Do you know if your kids (especially teens) or their friends have the Musical.ly app? Check it out for yourself if you’d like to know more and plan to talk to your kids about it today.
- Have you ever heard of Musical.ly? Tell me about it.
- Do you have any friends who are obsessed with being famous on social media?
- What’s good about Musical.ly?
- What’s bad about Musical.ly?
- How do you feel when you get a lot of likes (or no likes) on something you put on social media? Why?
Remember, it’s not about freaking out or sheltering our kids forever. It’s about redeeming the conversation.
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Comments
7 responses to “Apps Every Parent Needs to Know About”
Thank you for this, Anne… I feel like I’m pretty careful with my kids and their devices, but a few days ago, I let my ten-year-old daughter convince me to let her download Musical.ly on our iPad because several of her friends (who are also good kids with strict-ish parents) have it. She spent a little time on it and found her friends to follow, but hadn’t posted anything, and then didn’t look at it again all weekend.
This morning I read your email/blog and couldn’t believe the timing. My first instinct was to go delete the app before she woke up, but your sentence about not stealing their phones and deleting apps and having a conversation instead really stood out. So while she was eating breakfast, I mentioned the app and how I read that it’s really not for kids and you’re supposed to be at least 12 (which I am kicking myself for not even noticing that part, let alone the 18+), and right away she said, “Yeah, let’s delete it. I think there’s some stuff on there I shouldn’t see anyway.” So I think she must have already had some guilt about it and we had a good little chat about apps and life. Later, I went into the settings before deleting, and she did have it set as public! Ah!
So anyway, instead of beating myself up about this total mommy fail, I wanted to take the time to say THANK YOU for this wake up call and reminder to not get lax about all this stuff. You probably saved my daughter from some things she didn’t need to see and/or hear, and helped me remember to be more in tune with what’s happening on those screens. Thank you for speaking up about all this. I am grateful and will stay tuned. :)
Thank you, Alyssa! If you don’t mind, I would love to share your story on Facebook to help other parents! (Just using your first name!)
That would be fine. :)
Parents need to know that the videos on this app are MUCH more disturbing than what you find on first glance. If you dig deep…there are adult content video’s on this app, and even with filters on the phone or iPod, it lets you see them by going further into the videos and hashtags under them. I figured this out just the other night after I noticed a video on my child’s iPod from this app contained inappropriate language. So glad I delved further.
Love your article but I went one step further and its bad. Here is a post I recently sent to an article about Musical.ly on Good Morning America.
I am concerned. My daughters love Musical.ly and today I noticed that it is filled with not just music videos but pornography. There is a search bar and kids search for popular tags and anything can pop up. My oldest daughter ran across something really bad today and shared it with me bc my younger girl loves it as well. I spent over 2 hours reporting filth. I understand that in these days of the internet we come across this kind of junk but this app targets younger kids. If you look you will see the average age is 7-18. Little ones. I believe the there is an age requirement but you can tell the age of a lot of these kids. My HUGE concern is that I came across these younger children making sexual videos. Something has got to be done about this and now!! I came across a man who calls himself DaddySex66 and his videos consist of him sitting around the playgrounds videoing all the little girls without their knowledge (YES I reported this all) but this APP is filled with this stuff!! I was sick and in tears. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing today. We had no idea. Musical.ly has taken down a lot of these videos and the ‘popular inappropriate’ hashtags for the search bar but you can be creative with that and find whatever you like. I came across a member who calls themselves Coupleforlittlegirls and they follow hundreds of young girls. They had videos of female and male masturbation, etc. These kids are trying to be “FAMOUS” and this is not the way. Something has to be done. I know that social media is filled with filth but seeing these young boys and girls showing themselves is WRONG! Its a shame bc this is a neat app. There are some very talented children on here sharing their music and voices and its pretty cool. I allowed my daughter to use it and she’s had a ball with it, we all have, until now. musical.ly PLEASE get control of your app or delete it until you do. My fingers are hurting from reporting all day.
A Very Concerned Parent
Might be time for an update. I had never heard of app until a few weeks ago. Kept hearing that “All my friends have it.” I decided to check it out tonight. Searches within the app by hashtag feature seem especially problematic. Try “naughty.” These search results will let you click on hashtags that are not directly searchable from the main search. I have screen grabs that are nothing but pages and pages of porn. I am an old lady, not an internet savvy teen, and I had access to highly inappropriate content in minutes, all contained within a free app that defaults with public setting and location reveal.
Hi Anne,
I am so happy people like you try your best to help others yet I always feel like these things target the apps that are already downloaded. I honestly believe that you should teach your kids how to stay away from them instead of just going and deleting them. Either ways what my child does is stick to the music/sounds her friends already did. She also knows not to go to other musicalys or accounts. She knows she can only look at the ones with her friends or people like her favorite you tubers. (I always check what you tubers) But i can see why you want people to talk to their kids about deleting it.