Kyrgyzstan bans TikTok, citing harmful effects for children

BISHKEK: Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Culture has issued a directive to block the video-sharing app TikTok inside the Central Asian nation.

The ministry’s press service said that non-governmental organizations have raised concerns about the harmful effects of the TikTok application and how it negatively affects the mental development and health of children.

TikTok immerses the user in the virtual world of short clips, after watching them, teenagers try to repeat certain videos, some of which are life-threatening, the ministry said, Kabar News Agency reports.

In addition, the children’s psyche is still unstable as it is being formed, and such content causes addiction and negatively affects the emotional state of the younger generation, it said.

The ministry said it monitored the content of the TikTok application and found that the platform does not restrict access to information that is harmful to the health and development of children and does not control the age category for those accessing information to the TikTok application.

The ministry said that considering numerous appeals and the results of the monitoring, a decision was made to terminate the TikTok service in Kyrgyzstan.

The ministry added that the decision was sent to the Ministry of Digital Development for implementation within the framework of the legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic.

TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, has been banned in several countries that cites threats to sensitive user data security and to technical networks, or danger to young people’s development.