President Joe Biden and his administration recently signed the Restrict Act, which directly threatens TikTok. The act stands for Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology. TikTok is threatened by the Restrict Act due to Biden seeing it as a security threat to many users, especially in America. It is owned by a company named ByteDance Ltd., a Chinese-owned brand. Banning TikTok would be beneficial as it threatens consumers’ security.

The reason why Biden and others see TikTok as a threat to security is due to its access to consumers’ phones. TikTok itself has access to one’s IP address, contacts, emails, text messages, etc. when using the app.

Freshman Louis Vrambout touched on this when he said, “It’s just weird that they can access that stuff. Every time I open TikTok, I find something relating to me.”

TikTok’s ban would also be beneficial to many as it harms people’s mental health. Due to TikTok, and most social media, people’s attention spans have lowered. This is due to it and many social media formats of fast-paced content with large amounts of information in a few seconds.

“Social media as a whole definitely has impacted our ability to digest information. It has played a role in our need for fast and immediate answers instead of allowing us some slower processing times,” counselor Patricia Grgurovic said.

Sophomore Josh Jensen also agrees with Patricia’s point of TikTok’s negative effect on attention spans. “[TikTok] has made [my attention span] a lot shorter, which makes it harder to focus in school. This [also] makes it harder to keep conversations with people,” Jensen said.

Vrambout agrees his “attention span is a lot lower than it should be” due to his frequent use of TikTok.

TikTok has a large teenage audience and lots of bullying occurs, in several different communities. Jensen believes it should be banned because, “Many people are bullied over TikTok. It takes away from having a social life outside of our phones.”

TikTok’s ban would also be beneficial due to its negative impact on people’s relationships.

Grgurovic believes that TikTok can separate communities, instead of bringing people together. “You’re only liked pushed to the communities that match the algorithm of what the marketing people want you to see. So it actually alienates and polarizes communities,” Grgurovic said.

Similar to Grgurovic, Jensen believes that TikTok has affected his relationship with his community. That community is his family. Jensen said that due to him watching it for 10 or more hours a week, he doesn’t spend as much time with his family as he should.

Jensen believes deleting TikTok would benefit him because, “My mom likes to complain about [TikTok] a lot. So I think it’d be nice to just get rid of it.”

TikTok overall harms people’s security, mental health, and relationships. This is why Biden must ban TikTok in the United States.