“Squid Game” has emerged as one of the most popular Netflix series of all time. The South Korean thriller is about 456 different people in South Korea who are all in deep debt. They accept a mysterious offer to participate in children’s games, where the prize is 45.6 billion South Korean won. The effort, on the other hand, is life. The participants are killed if they do not complete the tasks.
HUGE POPULAR: On TikTok, the hashtag #SquidGame has been viewed more than 22.8 billion times. The series has a 16 age limit on Netflix, but on TikTok there are many younger users. That worries the experts. Photo: Netflix
view more
It’s not just on Netflix that the series has become hugely popular. “Squid Game” has spread like a plague on social media, especially on TikTok.
On TikTok, the hashtag #SquidGame has been seen more than 22.8 billion times. The series has a 16 age limit on Netflix, but on TikTok there are many younger users. That worries the experts.
The app that can cost lives
view more
–
– Worried
The social network TikTok has an age limit of 13 years. In addition to play, singing and dancing are also published short videos of wild partying and life-threatening challenges in the app. As many as 65 percent of Norwegian children and young people between the ages of 9-18 use the popular app, according to the Norwegian Media Authority.
The algorithms that tailor the content you see do not take into account whether you are 13 or 30 years old. Therefore, clips from the mildly “bloody” series are not weeded out for children under 16.
CONCERNED: The professional leader of Barnevakten, Kjellaug Tonheim Tønnessen, is worried about whether children should copy the toys from «Squid Game». Photo: Babysitter.
view more
“Squid Game” has got the professional leader of Barnevakten, Kjellaug Tonheim Tønnessen to issue a warning. Barnevakten is an independent non-profit foundation that disseminates facts and advice about children, young people and the media.
– This is not a series young children should see. What worries me is that TikTok copies the toys from the series. If so-called “challenges” arise from “Squid Game”, then in the worst case it can go far beyond the limit of what is safe, Tønnessen tells Dagbladet.
Tønnessen believes it is easy enough for parents to keep their children away from “Squid Game” on Netflix, using the parent settings. It’s worse to keep the little ones away from all the clips that appear on social media.
Sales of “Squid Game” costumes are exploding
– Must work together
The babysitter is not alone in warning against “Squid Game”. Stine Hatt Fossli, special educator at the Oslo School, has received clips from the thriller series that circulates on social media. She believes parents need to take more responsibility.
– It disappoints me that there are several of us who have to go out and say that this is not for children. We parents must take responsibility for what our kids do, says Fossli to Dagbladet.
DISAPPOINTED: Special educator Stine Hatt Fossli finds it disappointing that she has to go out and warn against “Squid Game”. Photo: Private.
view more
On the other hand, she understands that parents struggle to have an overview of what goes viral on TikTok.
– The more important it is that we participate in the kids’ social media. We need to get them to show us what they are watching, and make them understand why the content is not for them. We probably can not be ahead, so we have to be there with them, Fossli continues.
Makes Instagram boil
Advice
Tønnessen in Barnevakten advises parents to familiarize themselves with the settings that apply on the various social media.
– For example, many parents do not know that you can now install “Family Paring” on TikTok and that there have recently been completely new parenting settings on YouTube. The settings allow you to link your own account to the child’s, and the content and framework around the account are adapted to the child who uses it, says Tønnessen.
