Stop TikTok Stalkers: How to Keep Creeps Off Your Account

TikTok has surged in reputation over latest years. Projections present the variety of TikTok customers rising to 1.8 billion by the tip of 2022. Proper now, TikTok solely trails Fb and Instagram in customers worldwide, and it is the second-most well-liked social media web site for American youngsters.

Many individuals come to TikTok for the worldwide publicity and potential fame, however that stage of publicity can include the potential dangers of harassment, ridicule and bullying. Privateness for customers on most social media websites can usually be an afterthought, however TikTok has acquired specific criticism for its aggressive information assortment and dangers of stalking and phishing.

Should you’re on TikTok or have youngsters who use the service, it is essential to know what options and settings TikTok supplies to assist safe your privateness. Listed here are 11 settings that may defend you from undesirable followers, dangerous feedback and violent movies on TikTok.

See everybody who views your TikTok profile

You probably have a public account and also you’re over 16 years outdated, anybody on TikTok can entry your profile and watch your movies. (Accounts for individuals below 16 are robotically set to non-public.)

For a lot of customers, widespread publicity is the attraction of TikTok. It is an opportunity in your content material to be seen all over the world. However you might not need everybody, like bullies and even some members of the family, to have the ability to view your TikTok account.

Fortunately, it is easy to search out everybody who has checked out your profile.

• On TikTok, go to Profile and faucet on the three-dash menu within the prime proper.
• Faucet Settings and privateness and go into Privateness.
• Hit Profile views and toggle on Profile view historical past.

You will now have the ability to see everybody who’s seen your profile within the final 30 days. Should you discover somebody that you do not need to have entry to your profile and movies, you may then block them.

Block accounts on TikTok to allow them to’t see your profile

If you wish to cease a sure account from having the ability to see your profile, you may block them — whether or not they’re harassing or stalking you, or for any cause you want.

• First, discover the account you need to block and go to their profile.
• Subsequent, faucet on the three-dot icon within the prime proper. 
• Lastly, hit the Block button within the small menu that seems after which hit Block once more when prompted.

Not solely will a blocked account be unable to view your profile, in addition they cannot ship you messages and even discover your profile by looking for it. Nevertheless, in case your video is in a duet otherwise you’re on a livestream with a number of hosts, it is doable {that a} blocked account could possibly see these movies.

Set your TikTok account to non-public to regulate who can see it

The simplest method to preserve your privateness on TikTok is to make your account non-public, which means solely individuals you actively permit can view your profile and movies. To make your account non-public:

• Go to Profile within the nav bar on the backside of the web page.
• Faucet the three-dash menu within the prime proper.
• Hit Settings and privateness > Privateness
• Toggle Non-public account to On

After altering to a personal account, solely customers that you simply approve can comply with your account and watch your movies, however current followers are allowed to proceed following you. If that is an issue, you will have to individually block any followers that you don’t need seeing your movies.

Cease individuals from downloading your TikTok movies

By default, anybody who stumbles throughout your video on TikTok can obtain it utilizing the location’s built-in video obtain characteristic. Should you do not feel snug with different individuals having your movies saved on their gadgets, you may disable that characteristic.

• Go to Profile > three-dash menu > Settings and privateness
• Faucet Downloads beneath the Interactions heading
• Toggle Video downloads to Off

Sadly, there are different ways in which individuals can obtain your movies, akin to display screen recording, third-party apps and shortcuts, however this setting will forestall some of the well-liked (and best) methods of downloading movies from TikTok.

Report problematic accounts, movies or feedback on TikTok

Blocking an account could not at all times be sufficient. If an account is pretending to be another person or harassing individuals typically, you would possibly have the ability to report the offending actions and have the account restricted or completely banned. Not solely are you able to report particular person accounts, but additionally particular movies, feedback and direct messages. 

To report hateful, violent or different prohibited content material on TikTok:

• Account: Go to the account profile of the offending social gathering, faucet the three-dot icon within the prime proper, hit Report and comply with the directions.
• Video: Lengthy press on the video, faucet Report and comply with the directions.
• Dwell: Lengthy press on the stay video, faucet Report and comply with the directions.
• Remark: Lengthy press on the remark, faucet Report and comply with the directions.
• Direct Message: Lengthy press on the message or messages, faucet Report and comply with the directions.

You’ll be able to report one thing for quite a lot of causes, together with minor security, disordered consuming, self-harm, grownup nudity, bullying, harassment, spam, dangerous misinformation, unlawful actions, violent content material and extra.

Cease TikTok from recommending your account to different individuals

If you need your account to remain low-key and away from too many individuals’s eyes, you may cease your account from being advised to different individuals that may have your contact info on their cellphone or have mutual associates with you. To cease your account from being really useful by TikTok:

• Go to Profile > three-dash menu > Settings and privateness > Privateness
• Faucet Recommend your account to others
• Toggle off all of the choices

Your TikTok account is generally advised to a number of teams, together with your contacts, Fb associates, individuals with mutual connections and individuals who open or ship hyperlinks to you (together with hyperlinks to content material on TikTok which are shared outdoors of TikTok). Disable the entire settings to cease your account from being advised in any respect, which is able to make it more durable to search out.

Maintain your TikTok remark part secure and wholesome

Feedback on any social media service can shortly flip hostile, and TikTok is not any exception. Thankfully there are a number of options buried in your TikTok settings that can assist you reasonable your feedback and remove spam and hateful feedback.

To search out your remark settings, go to Profile > three-dash menu > Settings and privateness > Privateness > Feedback. Take into account adjusting the next settings:

• Who can remark in your movies and Tales: Select between all your Followers, Followers that you simply additionally comply with or Nobody.
• Remark filters: You’ll be able to select to filter all feedback, solely spam and offensive feedback or feedback with sure key phrases. All filtered feedback shall be hidden till you individually approve them.
• Remark administration: Right here is the place you may assessment your filtered feedback, selecting Approve or Delete to resolve which feedback will seem beneath your movies.

Prohibit who can tag and point out you on TikTok

So long as somebody is aware of your TikTok username, they’ll tag you in different movies or point out you in feedback. If somebody is tagging you in movies you do not need to see or mentioning you in feedback as a means of focused harassment, there’s a method to forestall undesirable tagging.

First, you will want to search out the mentions and tags settings. Go to Profile > three-dash menu > Settings and privateness > Privateness > Mentions and tags, and configure these settings:

• Who can tag you: Select between Everybody, Individuals you comply with, Those who comply with you again or Nobody.
• Who can point out you: Once more, select between Everybody, Individuals you comply with, Those who comply with you again or Nobody.

An in-box notification setting can even ship you a notification anytime somebody you comply with likes or feedback on movies you are talked about in, however that does not actually have an effect on your privateness on TikTok.

Cease direct messages from strangers and stalkers on TikTok

Whereas most content material on TikTok is on the market for the world to see, direct messages aren’t so clear and visual. Many individuals use DMs to harass, bully and spam different individuals. Nevertheless, there’s a means to assist forestall that from occurring to you.

Go to Profile > three-dash menu > Settings and privateness > Privateness > Direct messages, and alter these settings:

• Who can ship you direct messages: Select between Followers that comply with you again, Individuals you despatched messages to or Nobody.
• Message desire: Should you toggle Filtered requests on, messages from folks that TikTok suspects as being malicious or spammy will seem in your filtered requests till you reply to them.

Prohibit who can Duet or Sew your TikTok movies

On TikTok, you may react to different movies by both inserting your self into their movies or utilizing their movies in your personal. The Duet characteristic allows you to create a response split-screen video, combining half of your video with half of somebody’s else’s video to create a single response video. With the Sew characteristic, your video and another person’s video are built-in into one another — you may edit a portion of their video into yours.

Should you’re not a fan of those options or don’t need different customers placing your movies into theirs, you may disable them in order that nobody can Duet or Sew your video. To do that, go to Profile > three-dash menu > Settings and privateness > Privateness after which:

• Duet: Select between Followers, Followers that comply with again or Nobody.
• Sew: Select between Followers, Followers that comply with again or Nobody.

In case your account is about to non-public, nobody however you may create a Duet or Sew together with your movies.

Stop others from viewing your following record and appreciated movies

You would possibly publish movies on TikTok for everybody to see, however that does not essentially imply you need everybody to have the ability to see who you are following or which movies you want. Who you comply with and what you want can provide others extra info than you would possibly need to share, however you may simply set TikTok in order that nobody however you may see your follower record and appreciated movies.

To cease others from viewing your following record or appreciated movies, go go to Profile > three-dash menu > Settings and privateness > Privateness after which:

• Following record: Select between Followers or Solely me.
• Favored movies: Select between Followers or Solely me.

 If you choose the “solely me” choice for the next record, different customers will nonetheless have the ability to see your mutual associates.

For extra about TikTok and privateness, find out how the corporate is defending younger customers from inappropriate movies and why some US regulators are frightened about TikTok sharing non-public person information with China.