Albania bans TikTok for a 12 months after killing of teenager

TIRANA (Reuters) -Albania on Saturday introduced a one-year ban on TikTok, the favored quick video app, following the killing of a young person final month that raised fears over the affect of social media on kids.

The ban, a part of a broader plan to make colleges safer, will come into impact early subsequent 12 months, Prime Minister Edi Rama mentioned after assembly with mother and father’ teams and academics from throughout the nation.

“For one 12 months, we’ll be fully shutting it down for everybody. There might be no TikTok in Albania,” Rama mentioned.

A number of European international locations together with France, Germany and Belgium have enforced restrictions on social media use for youngsters. In one of many world’s hardest laws concentrating on Massive Tech, Australia accredited in November an entire social media ban for youngsters underneath 16.

Rama has blamed social media, and TikTok specifically, for fuelling violence amongst youth in and outdoors college.

His authorities’s determination comes after a 14-year-old schoolboy was stabbed to loss of life in November by a fellow pupil. Native media had reported that the incident adopted arguments between the 2 boys on social media. Movies had additionally emerged on TikTok of minors supporting the killing.

“The issue at the moment shouldn’t be our youngsters, the issue at the moment is us, the issue at the moment is our society, the issue at the moment is TikTok and all of the others which are taking our youngsters hostage,” Rama mentioned.

TikTok mentioned it was searching for “pressing readability” from the Albanian authorities.

“We discovered no proof that the perpetrator or sufferer had TikTok accounts, and a number of stories have in actual fact confirmed movies main as much as this incident had been being posted on one other platform, not TikTok,” an organization spokesperson mentioned.