Their story happened last year before Christmas. “When I opened the mail, I saw a lot of invoices from Apple. And I see TikTok credit – once, twice, three times, I counted 75 payments in total,” Polách described his dismay.
At first, he thought it was some kind of mistake or fraud, because almost a hundred thousand crowns were drained from his account during a single weekend. “I logged into the bank and saw that the credit card was completely drained,” stated Polách, adding that he did not authorize any such payments in his bank.
Only after the weekend did it turn out that his daughter Linda made the payments from her iPhone. Mr. Polách’s credit card was matched in a family account within the Apple ecosystem.
A third of Czechs are already on TikTok, the number of users is growing
Internet and PC
“I met a tiktoker who I really enjoyed. He was funny, he’s Slovak and he makes video games. He also offers the opportunity to play with him, so I sent him gifts to support him,” confided Linda.
Cute stickers
TikTok allows you to support live broadcasts of popular creators in the form of stickers, which can be purchased for a currency called TikTok Coin. Eight virtual coins, valid only on this social network, can be bought for roughly five crowns.
The user then sends pictures to streamers, which can be worth as much as 15,000 TikTok Coins. All you have to do is send a few nice pictures and you will spend thousands of crowns at once, or even tens of thousands of crowns in the worst case scenario.
Even adults may not realize at that moment how much money is involved. “I knew it was real money, but at that moment I didn’t realize how much money it was, how much I was spending,” said Linda.
At the same time, the parents had no idea that they even had TikTok on their mobile phone. This social network states in its terms that it cannot be used by children under the age of 13, and claims that it actively searches for and blocks the accounts of younger individuals.
Unfortunately, it is a common practice that TikTok – just like other social networks – is also used by much younger children. “Many children have TikTok at school. And if they don’t have it, they have other networks, such as Snapchat, Instagram or YouTube,” Linda described how her peers are doing at school.
Intelligent confirmation of payments
The payments actually went out from the phone, even though Mr. Polách had set his phone to confirm all transactions to his daughter. A number of domestic banks currently use, for the convenience of clients, intelligent verification of online card payments based on an evaluation of their riskiness.
It is about the so-called Risk-Based Authentication – technology that uses advanced algorithms to evaluate whether authentication is needed or not. “Payments that our system evaluates as low risk do not need to be verified, you are paid immediately. You can often get by without verification in popular e-shops, when booking bus seats, etc.,” says ČSOB, for example, on its website.
In addition, Air Bank points out that it depends on whether the merchant supports 3D Secure. “Most reliable traders use this security. In this case, the card payment will need to be confirmed on the Internet. If the merchant does not support 3D Secure, the payment will go through without the need for further confirmation,” the bank states on its website.
That payments leave the card even without verification is unfortunately not unusual these days.
“I was terribly upset and, of course, my adrenaline was pumping. And I immediately started solving how to get the money back,” Polách did not hide his indignation.
He did not give up the fight for his money. He complained about the payments first to Apple and then to the bank. And she actually handled the claim positively and gradually returned all the money to him.
Although it was possible to get the money back, this story does not have a completely happy ending for Linda. “Because I sent gifts on TikTok, I got banned from my cell phone and social networks and I have more work at home,” Linda revealed how her parents punished her.
Supervision is important, experts agree
Experts agree that social networks are a big risk for teenagers. “It consists in the fact that they try different tricks on us to stay there longer and to sell us different goods, and for this they need different algorithms and recommendation systems, so the social network is researching what I enjoy, how it could keep me there longer , and then perhaps on the basis of what I enjoy, she extracted some payment from me,” warned Martin Kožíšek, internet security specialist at the CZ.NIC association.
According to earlier analyses, children spend two to five hours a day on social networks. They are most attracted to TikTok, followed by Instagram and YouTube. As can be seen from the lines above, they often log on to social networks at a much younger age than they should.
According to experts, this is alarming, because most parents are not even aware of all the risks lurking on the networks. “Children very often experience bullying on social networks, they very often compare themselves, and this leads to great psychological problems, because they feel that the whole world is perfect, the best, ideal and they are not enough for it, they do not achieve it,” Hana Petráková, head e-mail counseling on the Safety Line.
It is good to ask the children not only what was at school, but also how the Internet was.
“We also perceive a problem in the fact that social networks are relatively highly addictive, because they bring a quick dopamine effect when using them,” stated Petráková.
That is also why it is good to set rules for children. “I think that the way is not to ban children from social networks or any use of the Internet, but to give rules to it so that it is bearable, meaningful and beneficial to children. What we can extract from social networks or the Internet, so that they can extract it, but so that it does not threaten them at the same time,” Petráková added.
As an ideal case, she mentioned having a time limit set on children’s devices and at the same time monitoring what content they are watching. Other experts hold a similar opinion. “For the little ones, it’s definitely a good idea to get a parental lock, it’s optimal for children up to 8 years of age, then it’s just a matter of trust, because children will bypass any prohibitions,” Kožíšek is clear.
“It’s good to ask children not only what was at school, but how they were on the Internet, and the children will confide in you what they experienced or who they follow, which is very valuable information for you as parents,” concluded the internet security specialist.
Sexting, bullying or cyberstalking. Children are prey on the Internet
Security
