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what is musical.ly and should I let my kid have an account?

You guys.

My kids have become obsessed — O.B.S.E.S.S.E.D — with musical.ly.

And up until recently, only Maddy had an account.

Owen and Cora, though, asked for an account just about every day, and finally I relented.

musical.ly for kids | what parents need to know | teachmama.com

I must be getting tired in my old age, after how long I made Maddy wait for an Instagram account for about forever, look at me with my second and third children just letting them dive into the wilds of social media without care.

But if you know me, you will know that’s not the case.

I’ve thought long and hard about allowing Owen and Cora to have a musical.ly account, and I’ll explain why I think it’s okay.

Here’s the skinny. . .

What is musical.ly and Should I Let My Kid Have An Account?

I’ll start from the beginning.

What is musical.ly, and why should you even care?

From the musical.ly website:

musical.ly is a social media platform for creating, sharing and discovering short music videos.

Every day, millions of people use musical.ly as an outlet to express themselves through singing, dancing, comedy, and lip-syncing. The app celebrates creativity with videos recorded in 15 seconds or less and shared across the musical.ly community.

Picture this: you have the ability to make cool, short videos–songs or short dialogues–that you can share with the world, and people can see them. Think MTV meets SNL meets karaoke meets Dubsmash meets American Idol meets Instagram. Kind of.

kids and musical.ly what parents need to know teachmama.com

People can watch another person’s musical.ly and either:

  • like (click a heart)
  • comment (click a dialogue bubble)
  • ask a question, start a duet!, share on facebook, share on instagram, share on FB messenger, share via twitter or email or text message or vine or link (by clicking the three dots)
  • shoot a video using the same song or clip (by clicking the spinning circle)

By clicking the + bottom of the screen–no matter where the user may be on the platform–he or she can create a 15-second video.

Users can pick music, shoot first, or use something from their own library. But it seems that that a popular way of finding songs or clips is to borrow from friends’ or followers’ music. You can do this easily.

kids and musical.ly what parents need to know teachmama.com

When picking music from the musical.ly library, you can search for a song or choose according to a million different topics:

  • popular
  • lip-sync classic
  • comedy
  • muser voice
  • dance
  • rap
  • instruments
  • j-pop
  • moody
  • rock
  • peaceful
  • metal
  • spanish
  • and the list goes on and on and on and on.

Or, you can choose from your own music library on your device.

Friends, I am not going to pretend that I know everything there is to know about musical.ly. I do not.

But I do know this:

  • musical.ly terms of service require that users be at least 13 years old to use this platform;
  • musical.ly community guidelines are very clear in the way they want the platform used:
    • Post musicals you love
    • Like, follow and comment
    • Flag inappropriate content
    • Be nice
    • Have fun!
  • musical.ly community guidelines state how the platform should not be used. Users should not:
    • Post explicit content or nudity
    • Spam Comments
    • Bully, harass or disrespect other musers
    • Post personal informationkids and musical.ly what parents need to know teachmama.com

And I know this, and you should know this, too:

  • Some of the songs and clips and audio pieces have curse words or inappropriate content. Make a rule that your child may not choose these types of songs. (Think: They may see and hear this kind of thing on tv or in school, but they are not permitted to use it themselves, lip-synched or not.)
  • If your child has a musical.ly account, you should check it now. You should always know the user name and password, and the minute you check and it’s been changed, the account should be closed and the device confiscated. (Think: You’re in charge. You pay the bills.)
  • Make sure that the account is private. (Think: Do you really want anyone to have access to your child’s videos? And it’s not just viewing the videos; anyone can comment on public videos. Sometimes the comments can get pretty rough.)
  • Make sure that the location service is off for the account. (Think: No one needs to know where you child is–ever.)
  • Make sure that your child knows the majority of–if not all–of his or her followers. (Think: Followers have access to your child’s videos. Followers can see and comment on your child’s videos.)
  • Make sure that your child follows only accounts that you deem appropriate. (Think: This may be difficult to determine, but I bet you can get a sense of each person by watching a handful of videos.)
  • Make sure that your child knows that you, as the parent, may at any time, check his or her account. That should go for texts and emails and any other social media platform that your child uses, video games included. (Think: You pay the bills. Privacy schmivacy. When we were our kids’ ages, we had to have all phone conversations in the middle of the house on a phone attached to the wall. At least I did. . . )
  • Make sure that your child understands that his or her worth is not and cannot be dictated by the number of likes or followers he or she has.
  • Make sure that your child is following a few decent accounts so that he or she sees what awesome, cool, creative videos look like.

And now maybe you’re wondering why on earth I let my kids have accounts? Here’s why:

  • I like that the musical.ly videos are creative and interactive.
  • I like that the videos are short.
  • I like that the musical.ly videos involve thinking outside the box.
  • I like that there’s a mix of acting and singing.
  • I like that kids take risks by putting themselves out there to create videos.
  • I like that the videos encourage users to be silly and fun and to not take themselves too seriously.
  • I like that musical.ly provides a ton of examples of cool videos which kids tend to try to mimic.
  • I like that if the account is private, and you only approve people you know, that you can kind of keep things under control.
  • I like that in the comment box, there’s a reminder to be nice.
  • I like that they often have community challenges–engaging users to make specific types of videos or videos to certain songs.
  • I like that often these videos provide a starting point for conversation with kids–because as they get older, that can be tough.

What do you think? Are you for musical.ly or not? Do your kids use it?

I’d love to know.

Because really, we’re learning as we go here.

 

If you want or need a bit more on digital literacy, start here:

how-to-talk-to-your-kids-about-instagram-teachmama.com_

 

cool-instagram-accounts-for-tweens-and-new-users-to-follow-teachmama.com_

family media agreement | teachmamacom

 

This post is part of our Digital Kids series: 

digital kids | teachmama.com

Read more about raising digital kids:

 

fyi: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. This small percentage of money helps offset the costs of hosting this blog, which helps me keep this content free for you. Forever and always I recommend only products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”  For more information, please see teachmama media, llc. disclosure policy. 
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Comments

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04 | 07 | 2016

Comments

  1. hi, I’m just wondering if how old your kids are today. I have a 12 yo and a 9 yo and they are clamoring to try out various apps – snap chat, instagram and music.ly. I rely a lot on your wonderful website for guidance in all things digital. 🙂

    Reply

  2. Thank you for your reply! My 12yo really wants to get instagram and snapchat. She sees I read your blog and wants music.ly now too. 🙂 Though I think she already knew about it prior to this. my daughter inherited her grandma’s iphone so she has a few apps already installed – none where she interacts with other folks yet though – other than via texting. My 9 yo wants a fitbit! he’s willing to spend his own money on it and quite a few of his friends have fitbits so in some ways i think its a safe intro to social media and a great way to stay active. 🙂 I have never seen him lobby so hard for something before so I appreciate his enthusiasm. My 12 yo has expressed some interest in starting her own blog.
    My 12 yo has already downloaded the family media agreement and seems agreeable to the rules so now I just have to get my act together. 🙂

    Reply

    • Nina!! You are so welcome. My advice to you would definitely to get in there and try out these platforms for yourself! See how they work, follow some folks, and get started maybe before your daughter. It helps!

      Let me know how things go!

      Reply

    • Hey friend–I have not reviewed Snapchat, but my very simple answer to my kids is ‘N-O.’ Check out CommonSenseMedia.org for questions, information, and more support, and definitely let me know how things go!

      Reply

  4. Social media is not for kids! why? Because if they get bullied what will happen to them? Can they handle it?

    Reply

    • Hey Jena! Thanks for writing. I definitely think that the bullying issue is one that must be addressed whether your child is on social media or not; bullying has been around since the beginning of time, unfortunately. But you are right in that social media is one more platform where bullying–and actually any stressful tween/teen issue can arise. It’s not without thought, measure, and consideration that kids should be introduced to platforms like musical.ly and instagram, though, and only with a parent’s guidance and support.

      Reply

    • Hi Jenna! I am one of the users of this website and I agree that bullying is a issue However if you press to hard on them about bullying they may feel bullied by you so just be chill!

      Reply

  5. Parents, please beware. Although musical.ly is an awesome new concept in the making, the app does not provide the filters needed to keep our kids safe from adult content like YouTube might. my daughter can block other users from seeing her creations, but it doesn’t keep her from seeing unwanted content. Type in any obscene word in the search bar, and you’ll be hit with images that no child should ever see. click on any of the related hashtags beneath the video, and you’ll be bombarded with even more. Kids do get curious, so it’s only a matter of time before your kids and their friends notice this major fault. My daughter and I have to delete our accounts until musical.ly can solve this problem.

    Reply

    • Thanks for the information. This is the same as any social media platform–Instagram, Twitter, Facebook–any platform with hashtags. I think, again, before any family allows social media of any sort to be a part of their life, having a Family Media Agreement in place is imperative.

      Reply

      • Having a “Family Media Agreement” won’t stop kids from exploring uncharted, easily accessible hashtags on Music.ly. Google: Parents Beware Music.ly. To save you the time, THERE IS PORNOGRAPHIC MATERIAL ON MUSIC.LY, UNDER-AGE AND HAS BECOME THE GO TO APP FOR PEDOPHILES AS THEY CAN USE HASHTAGS TO LURE AND WATCH UN-INFORMED AND UN-PROTECTED CHILDREN. Just because you have a “family contract” doesn’t mean your child won’t accidentally stumble upon this GROWING PROBLEM. Yes, the app is a great idea and I LOVE IT. BUT, it has a NASTY FLAW, and it would be a disservice not to bring it to the attention of your readers who are caring and responsible parents. For some, it’s too late… I recommend looking into a social media monitoring app to keep up with what your child is ACTUALLY SEEING AND DOING WHEB YOU ARE NOT LOOKING!! The one I use is called UKnowKids. Google it. Peace. -SuperDAD

        Reply

  6. Hi, you say that musical.ly has a limit of 13 years old… And so i have seen… But your kids are underaged, and they use it. My son – 11 years old – really really wants this because “all others” have, but he is as i said 11 years. How did you create a musical.ly-account for your kids? Do they have som kind of “familyacconut”, like apple-id for kids?

    Reply

    • Maria–
      No, they don’t have a family account that I know of. I think I set up the accounts for them. Maybe it is worth sharing with the Musical.ly team that a family account could be worthwhile?

      Reply

      • So you acknowledge that the terms of service say users must be 13, yet you break their terms so your kids may have access? How is that ethical? And since you are willing to break the developers terms, why should I trust your review?

        Reply

    • Hello Maria!
      Your son is eleven however they do this age limit on maturity not exactly age, and if your child is comparing himself to others it most likely means a lot to him

      Reply

  7. So glad you wrote! The reality is that many of the users of social media platforms–Snapchat, Instagram, Musical.ly, etc–are younger users who are ALL breaking the terms of use. And I made the choice, which is not for everyone, as I noted, to walk with my children through this process to show them how it can be used properly and safely and under the strict guidance of an adult who knows what she’s doing.

    You can honestly either trust my review, being that my kids are active users of the platform, or not; that’s totally up to you. And really? I took the time to write the review to help parents who were on the fence about letting their kids onto the platform and shared my opinion with the universe. Either trust it or not. It’s all good!

    Reply

  8. Ok so I’m watching my nieces and my 12 year old niece has been on her phone all day but I’m not her mother but I was straightening her hair and she had her phone standing up recording herself is what I thought but I asked her and she told me that she was on lively which she made it sound like is linked to musically which she said whoever can watch it and then get likes but she said her friend did one if her folding socks that supposedly it’s videos of them doing crazy stuff so I asked her if her mother knew and she said no bc obviously she knows she’s in the wrong so just wondering what is it and is it safe??

    Reply

    • Hi, friend–You TOTALLY have a right to be concerned. Lively is an app that works WITH Musical.ly, but we DO NOT ALLOW OUR KIDS TO USE IT. It does just what you said–livestream. And really, we feel our kids are not ready for that, nor do they need it.

      Reply

  9. Listen this website is cool but your controlling your kid TO MUCH seriously my child has to tell me what social media they have and all I do is make sure they don’t watch p*rn! Come on just cause they young doesn’t mean that they aren’t stupid and I seem to be the only goddamn parent that gets that!

    Reply

  10. I relented because my 10 year old expresses that she was feeling clueless at school when all of her friends were talking about the app and she had never even seen it. I downloaded it first to my phone and learned how to make the account private and I also checked a few of her friends’ pages to get an idea of the content. Deeming it “fine,” I downloaded it to our family Ipad and let my daughter choose the account image and name.
    We had the app for three days before I deleted it. Here’s what I didn’t like:
    -I saw some frantic behavior in my daughter in her attempt to get her videos “just right.” She positioned herself in a clean spot in her
    Messy room so that her “followers” wouldn’t see how messy it was, flipped her hair a few times in a way I’ve never seen, and took clip after clip until it was publish-worthy.
    It was like watching a self confident kid morph into a peer-approval-seeking teen in front of my eyes .
    -My daughter got in a little verbal disagreement with a friend at school , then came home to see that the friend had a) “unfollowed” her on musical.ly and b) taken my daughter’s name off of her “squad” list in her bio. Mean girls movie remake need a cast member ?
    -Luckily my daughter didn’t see this, but late at night I was checking her account (part of our agreement ) and saw one of her classmates post a video where she shook her hips and lip synced to a song that included the lyric “my d*ck so hard.”
    I hit that delete app button with speed and passion.

    Nope. Nope. Nope!

    Reply

    • I CANNOT believe that a classmate was singing that kind of song, but I’m not surprised. Every child, every group of friends, every community uses it differently I suppose. And really, the more we talk, learn, and share experiences with these kinds of social media platforms, the better. Again, THANK YOU for sharing.

      Reply

  11. Well I want to chip in my HORRIBLE experience with musically. I have a 12 year old dancer so she has loved it. She has had her account for almost a year with no problem. And she lets me see her videos and I help her make some etc. no problems at all till last week.

    I don’t even know how it happened but in ONE week I got charged US$457 !! From her musically account!! I can’t figure out how she made all the charges that summed this. It has always been free and it has a card because of the fact an Apple ID requires it. So mothers BEWARE

    Reply

    • Emelie–WHAT THE WHAT????! Oh my GOODNESS I have never heard anything like this. Thank you for sharing. I bet you could dispute it with Apple–have you tried?

      Reply

  12. My almost 10 year old daughter wants it and I am trying to decide. I said no before, but all of her friends are on it and she’s pushing hard. I’m just not convinced that there are enough controls available. And if I trust the company – the reason that it is 13 plus is that that legally allows the company to do more with the private information and get around laws to protect kids. The fact that they say 13+ but have tons of kids on their and don’t try to delete the accounts (and won’t even delete accounts when you leave the service) is very sketchy.

    Reply

    • Exactly. I tried to cancel my daughter’s account, and they won’t delete it until I provide a phone number. Seriously??? That is so sketchy I don’t even know where to begin…

      Reply

  13. I’m not a parent but i have a beautiful niece that i would raise without a second thought. I have seen posted on you tube some of the horribly inappropriate songs that kids are making videos with. songs with references to sexual acts, drinking, and drug use. for reference check out “d*uchebag cringe compilation” to see some young users lipsync to inappropriate songs. and all i can think is
    these little boys better stay away from my niece and female cousins. So yes as empowering as this app can be there is a dark side to it. parents be mindful and stay vigilant!

    Reply

    • Very dark indeed. Please parents please… Do some deep digging. Agreements won’t erase inappropriate images from their minds. Peace.

      Reply

  14. So, today I was going through one of my daughters tablets (she has two because she had one and then received the other as a reward at school). She has a texting app on it and I’m not as good as I should be about checking it. Through checking it, I found that she has a musical.ly account. The app isn’t on this tablet, so it must be the one she has out of town with her right now. I’m mostly upset that she has it without asking permission as that is one of our big rules.
    How would you handle this situation when she gets back in town this weekend?

    Reply

    • oh, Jessica! What did you decide to do? I am not an expert in this field, but I would say that if she knowingly and consciously broke a family rule, then there should be a consequence. I’d be curious to hear what others say, though. Good luck. This parenting thing is a HARD gig.

      Reply

  15. Hello. Do you reccomend 13 y/o having instagram and which app do you prefer better for a 13 y/o? snapchat or instagram

    Reply

  16. pERSONALLY, i THINK THAT PARENTS SHOULD WAIT UNTIL THEIR CHILDREN ARE AT LEAST 13 OR ELSE THEIR CHILDREN THAT AREN’T EVEN TEENS YET WILL BE GLUED TO THEIR PHONES, DOING sNAPCHAT, iNSTAGRAM, ETC. tRUST ME, YOU don’t WANT THIS.

    Reply

  19. My children had an account and was having fun and enjoying making and watching videos everyday. My concern was kids at their school and kids they thought were friends were leaving messages that were not very nice. The messages themselves were not rude if you would read them, but they relate to something mean that happened in school or the neighborhood. After some comments were made, my children were noticeably upset and would not tell me the issues. It took a while to figure it out, but I did and was not very happy. I guess you can call them inside jokes that were not funny or nice. Some kids can be very mean and cruel, and really nice to the parents. This is why we took our children’s account and canceled. I did enjoy it, but it is not worth my children questioning who their friends really are.
    I realize musically is really fun, but for my family it was not the same for all.

    Reply

  20. HElp help my daughter that is 10 was just caught with a musicly account and i did not know!!!! She was dancing to a song that said the f word mutiplue times!!! what do i do

    Reply

  21. HElp help my daughter that is 10 was just caught with a musicly account and i did not know!!!! She was dancing to a song that said the f word mutiplue times!!! what do i do!!!????

    Reply

  22. like another poster mentioned, The reason the age to get an account is 13 is so that the company can bypass several laws in reselling subscriber information. It has nothing to do with maturity. I would argue that a 10 year old can do less damage than a 13 year old, because they generally don’t know where to look for the “bad” stuff yet.

    the vast majority of social media is a deal with the devil. you let the company invade your privacy and profit off of you for a few seconds of cheap thrills. to boot, it’s extremely addictive so leads to justification and defensiveness in continuing the behavior even when these companies (cough, cough, facebook) are proven to be less than ethical in handling user information (which legally belongs to them, something many do not realize, but i digress). Personally, my 10 and 12 year olds are not allowed on social media, just texting with their friends over wifi which I read, and even that has a place and time. they can play games on their electronics, but no interactive online games or features. it’s hardly limiting when you consider the wealth of apps available today. there’s a great list to begin with on common sense media.

    I have also recently blocked youtube, which was causing a lot of problems, the least of which was hours of wasted time. at least when I was a kid, if you spent hours watching tv, you would learn something about the world or how to tell a good joke or a story. You also had a pretty good idea in advance what you were getting, and watching people with at least a modicum of talent. the images and ideas these narcissistic self-proclaimed celebrities present online is extremely destructive to a child’s developing brain. whether it’s on Instagram or youtube or facebook, looking at curated photos and videos of perfect-looking people with perfect lives, even if it’s just in short spurts, can easily lead you to believe, even as a full-formed adult, that everyone’s life is so much better than yours. and then you have the issue of posting things and not having anyone like or notice it, or even worse, hating on it.

    our job as parents is not to be our child’s best friend. It’s to make the right choices and look out for them until they have the maturity to make the right choices for themselves. my kids know exactly why they can’t go on these sites or use these apps. They know about child predators, pornography and con-artists, but more importantly about lack of honesty, risks to privacy, fake-ness, bullying, and materialism, which is so extremely prevalent online. these values promoted on most social media sites are atrocious. there are so many other options, online and offline, which are productive ways for our kids to spend their time that there is no reason for any attentive and well-meaning parent to allow kids onto these inappropriate adult platforms. my kids can play lego, playmobil, read, draw, jump on a trampoline, go the park, walk the dog, do crafts, or god forbid volunteer and help someone less fortunate. most families who can afford ipads can afford these pastimes.

    to me, defaulting to social media it’s just doing what’s easy. avoiding an argument or a confrontation, or looking like the bad guy. or worse yet, avoiding looking hypocritical since we ourselves are so addicted to these technologies.

    Reply

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