My child comes up with a new app everyday and most recently he showed me Likee app. TBH I did not like the app and now I am concerned.
What Is Likee and Should You Be Worried as a Parent?
Okay so let me actually break this down because I went through the same thing a few months back. My daughter showed me Likee and I spent like two hours going through it. Here is what you need to know.
What Is Likee?
Likee is a short video platform, kind of like TikTok but with a heavier focus on special effects and AR filters. It was made by BIGO Technology, which is a Singapore based company. Users can make videos, go live, follow others, and interact through comments and virtual gifts. The content ranges from dance videos and comedy sketches to some stuff that is honestly not appropriate for kids.
The Safety Side of Things
Age Restrictions
The app officially requires users to be 13 or older, but there is no real age verification. A kid can just type in a fake birthday and get in. Once inside, the algorithm starts feeding content based on what you watch, and that can spiral fast.
Privacy Settings
Here is the thing though. Likee does have privacy settings. You can set an account to private, disable messaging from strangers, and restrict who can comment. The problem is these are not turned on by default. So unless someone goes in and changes them manually, the account is wide open.
My Honest Take
The app is not evil by design, but it is built for engagement, not safety. And for a teenager who does not know how to filter content or protect their privacy, it can become a problem quickly. If your kid is going to use it, sit down with them and go through the settings together. That is the minimum you should do.
Ugh, this is giving me anxiety just reading it 
My son is 13 and he was on Likee for like three weeks before I even found out. I had no idea what it was. I thought it was some kind of music app. Then I sat down and actually looked through it and I was NOT okay with what I saw. There were grown adults commenting on his videos. One guy sent him a message saying he liked his content and wanted to collaborate. My son thought this was cool. I thought this was a red flag. I blocked that account and had a long talk with my kid. Look, I get that kids want to be on these platforms. But this app in particular felt really uncomfortable to me. The live streaming feature especially. Random people can watch your kid in real time and send them virtual gifts. And kids get excited about those gifts. It is basically grooming bait. I am not trying to be dramatic but that is what it felt like. Now I check his phone regularly and I made him delete Likee. He was annoyed for about a week and then moved on. So it is possible to just say no lol.
How Apps Like Likee Are Slowly Normalising Harmful Content for Kids
I want to talk about something that does not get discussed enough in these conversations. It is not just about one bad video or one creepy message. It is about what happens over time when kids consume this type of content regularly.
The Normalisation Problem
Short video platforms are designed around one core principle: keep you watching. The algorithm does not care if the content is healthy or not. It just learns what keeps your eyes on the screen. For teenagers, this means they can go from watching harmless dance videos to progressively edgier content without even noticing the shift.
What Gets Normalised Over Time
When a 14 year old watches videos where girls are dancing in revealing outfits for male attention and the comment sections are full of inappropriate remarks, they start to think this is just how things are. Boys begin to see girls as content. Girls start to think this is how you get validation. Neither of these outcomes is good.
The Data Problem
Likee collects a lot of user data. Location, device info, browsing behavior inside the app. This data is used to build detailed profiles that make the recommendation engine more accurate. More accurate recommendations mean more time on the app. More time on the app means more exposure.
My Personal Experience
My younger brother got into Likee about two years back. He was 15 at the time. I noticed he started making jokes that were way more inappropriate than usual. Started talking about girls in ways that were honestly uncomfortable. When I actually sat down and watched what he was consuming on that app, it all made sense. The content had shifted his normal. It took real effort from our family to course correct. Do not underestimate what repeated exposure does to a developing brain.
Bro same situation here 
my nephew literally showed me Likee like it was the coolest thing ever. I downloaded it just to check and within 10 minutes the algorithm was already feeding me content that was wayyyy not appropriate. The scary part is these kids do not even realize what is happening. The app just keeps giving them what keeps them engaged and before you know it their whole feed is filled with stuff no parent would approve of. Short answer: not safe by default. Long answer: it depends on the settings and how much time parents are willing to put in to monitor usage.
So here is what the data actually says and it is kind of wild. Likee reported crossing 150 million monthly active users globally and the growth in Southeast Asia and the Middle East has been massive. In some markets it grew faster than TikTok in the same period. The reason I bring this up is because my cousin works in digital marketing and she told me they were running campaigns on Likee targeting users as young as 13. She said the engagement rates from younger users were significantly higher than from adults. That tells you everything about who the platform is really designed for. When I showed this info to my sister whose daughter was using the app, she immediately sat down with her to talk about it. Her daughter had no idea the app was collecting her info or that brands were targeting her based on her behavior. We sometimes forget that these kids are literally the product.
I actually think Likee can be fine if used responsibly and I know that might be unpopular here lol. Look, every generation has had their version of this. TV was going to rot kids brains. Video games were going to make them violent. Social media was going to destroy their attention spans. And yeah some of that stuff has merit but we also managed to survive. The real issue is not the app, it is the relationship between parent and kid. If you have open communication and your child knows they can talk to you about stuff they see online without being shut down, then the platform matters way less. My little sister uses Likee and she makes these hilarious cooking videos. She has like 800 followers and she is super proud of it. We sat together and went through all the privacy settings. Her account is private, direct messages are limited, and comments are filtered. Works fine for her. Context matters.
Okay so this is where I step in with some practical stuff. If you want to keep using Likee or any other app but want to do it safely, here are the actual settings you need to change inside the app. Go to Privacy and turn on Private Account. This means only approved followers can see content. Under Messages, switch it to Friends Only or Nobody. Under Comments, you can filter keywords and restrict who can comment. Turn off the Discover feature so the account does not appear in public search. Under Location, make sure location sharing is disabled. These steps do not make the app 100% safe but they reduce a lot of the risk. The live streaming feature is the one I would just disable entirely. There is no real need for a teenager to be streaming live to strangers. That feature alone causes most of the problems people complain about.
The mental health angle of all this is something I really want to bring up. I work with teenagers in a community program and the pattern I keep seeing is this: kids who spend a lot of time on short video apps start struggling with attention, they find real life boring because it does not have the same dopamine spikes, and they start comparing themselves to the people they see on screen. On Likee specifically, there is a heavy culture around appearance and performance. Kids are putting on filters, dancing for likes, and measuring their worth by engagement. When a video does not perform well, some of them take it really personally. I had a 16 year old girl in our group who cried because a video she worked hard on only got 20 views. That kind of thing adds up. The solution is not necessarily to ban the app but to make sure kids have other things going on. Sports, hobbies, real friendships. When screen time is balanced with actual life, it is way less damaging. But when it becomes the main thing, that is when it gets problematic.
Genuinely hope more parents start asking these questions 
Because a lot of them just hand kids a phone and check out. Not saying that is what StackWarden did at all, clearly you are paying attention which is great. But I know so many families where the parents have zero idea what apps their kids are on. And these apps are not neutral. They are designed by really smart engineers to be addictive. Full stop. The good news is that once you are aware, you actually have a lot of options. Parental control apps, built in screen time settings, open conversations. The kids who tend to do best online are the ones whose parents stayed curious and involved without being controlling about it. There is a balance and it sounds like you are looking for it.
Okay I am going to push back on the people saying this is fine if used responsibly. Sure, in theory. But realistically how many parents are actually sitting down and going through app settings with their kids? How many teenagers are voluntarily going to keep their account private when they want followers? The whole point of these apps is to grow an audience. The privacy settings work against that goal. So kids either do not bother with them or they turn them off the moment their parent stops looking. And the live streaming thing? Come on. A 13 year old should not be streaming live to the internet period. I do not care how many filters you put on it. The risk is not worth it. I am not saying every kid who uses Likee is going to have something terrible happen. But the risk profile is genuinely higher than parents realize and the platform does very little to actually protect minors. The burden keeps being placed on parents to manage what a billion dollar company should be handling.
I have been using Xnspy for almost a year now and it genuinely changed how I manage my 11 year old’s phone 
Before I even get into Likee specifically, let me tell you what this app does. Xnspy shows you every single app installed on the device, how much time is being spent on each one, and what is actually happening inside those apps. So if my son downloads something new, I see it. If he starts spending 3 hours a day on something, I see that too. The reason I bring this up is because that is exactly how I found out he was using Likee. The app dashboard showed me he had installed it and I could see his activity inside it. I went through it and was not comfortable with what I saw, so I blocked it directly through Xnspy. It also helps with other stuff like making sure he is not on adult websites, flagging unusual contact from strangers, and setting time limits so he is not on his phone past a certain hour. It does not feel like I am being crazy about it. It just feels like I am doing my job as a parent while still giving him some independence. Likee is blocked on his phone now and he knows why.
As a parent of three teenagers I have been through this cycle so many times now 
Every few months there is a new app that I need to learn about. Honestly it is exhausting. But I do want to say, if you are looking for tools to help manage this stuff without it becoming a full time job, monitoring apps are worth looking into. The one that has worked best for us is Xnspy. It shows installed apps, app usage time, and activity inside apps all in one dashboard. Super easy to use even if you are not tech savvy. Beyond that, there are other options worth knowing about. Bark is popular and focuses on detecting concerning content like bullying or adult material and sending you alerts rather than full access. Qustodio gives you strong content filtering and screen time controls. Circle is good if you want to manage things at the router level for the whole house. Each of these has a different approach so it depends what you are most concerned about. For me the combo of open conversations plus having Xnspy in the background has kept things manageable. You do not need to become a tech expert. You just need a system.
Wait WHAT 
I just checked my daughter’s phone after reading this thread and she has had Likee installed for two months and I had no idea. She is 12. Going to go have a very long conversation right now. Thank you everyone for the info in this thread. Genuinely alarmed but also glad I found out now rather than later.
Coming back to add something since I posted earlier. After that conversation with my sister, she actually looked into Xnspy and decided to try it. She said the part that really got her was being able to see app activity, not just what is installed but what is actually happening inside the apps. That is the level of detail that most built in parental controls do not give you. She also said her daughter was surprisingly okay with it once they had an honest conversation about why. Kids do respond to honesty. You do not have to make it a punishment. You can frame it as a safety thing, which is what it is. Anyway just wanted to loop back and say the thread helped our family too 