Students, tell us what you think about efforts to ban TikTok

Close up two sets of teenage hands one is holing a cellphone and the other is nearby. There is a laptop and notebooks on the wooden table below their hands.
In one recent survey, about two-thirds of U.S. teenagers reported using TikTok. YouTube was the most popular site. (The Good Brigade / Getty Images)

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

Congress is trying to ban TikTok. The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a resolution that gives TikTok owner Byte Dance, a Beijing-based tech company, six months to sell the app or see it banned in the United States. Lawmakers have raised data privacy and national security concerns because of the foreign ownership of such an influential social media app. Opponents of a ban say there is nothing unique about TikTok — that all social media platforms have positive and negative features.

About two-thirds of U.S. teens say they use TikTok, according to Pew Research Center, with 17% saying they are on the app almost constantly. While there are big worries about the mental health impacts of social media use, people also use TikTok as a creative outlet and to stay connected with friends.

We want to hear from students about how a TikTok ban would affect them.

Please take a few minutes to fill out the survey below, and let us know if we can follow up with you. We’ll keep your information confidential, and only publish your answers if you tell us it’s OK.

Not a student but know one who might have something to say? Please send them this survey.

Having trouble viewing the form? Click here.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.


The Latest

A specialized Queens high school is fed up. Relocating to a new building might be the answer. But another school is also eyeing the building.

Some Chicago Head Start providers are expecting funding grants to be renewed by Dec. 1, when their grant cycle is supposed to start. But they have yet to hear about the status of funding.

A coalition of Newark students wants to work with school board members to fix problems tied to student mental health and crumbling school buildings.

Board member David Daughety requested a second legal opinion on the contract extension procedure but was told the matter is closed.

The Indianapolis Local Education Alliance is meeting Dec. 3 to start narrowing down recommendations for changing who runs schools.

The Safe Path program puts trained adults on and off school campuses to defuse fights and keep students safe in local neighborhoods.