In this guide, we’ll cover the basics of Coverstar that every parent needs to know from a biblical worldview.

Publisher’s Note: We believe screen captures provide necessary insight for parents to evaluate an app. This app was difficult to review because nearly all the content is of young girls (under 13). We’ve blurred the images and account names of every child to protect these girls’ privacy, while still providing an accurate glimpse into the app’s environment.

#1 What is Coverstar?

Coverstar promotes itself as the safe alternative to TikTok: “All the fun of TikTok without the hate.” The app is intentionally designed for children and teens, claiming to keep their feed positive and age-appropriate. It promotes its users to create, connect, and express themselves.

At the same time, they also use the tagline: “Go viral, not toxic,” and encourage users to “Join trends to get verified.”

These are not neutral claims, and considering we are talking about children (any age can join with parental permission), we need to look deeper.

 

#2 What you can do on Coverstar

The app promotes the following activities:

• Create and share: Make vlogs, GRWM (Get Ready With Me) clips, hauls, reactions, dance videos, and more
• Join challenges: Explore fun prompts, create your own, and boost your creativity.

 

 

• Express yourself with avatars: Use your custom avatar and new face tracking tools to bring emotes and reactions to life. Coming soon, you’ll be able to step into virtual worlds as your avatar and play games.
• Go live: Verified creators can livestream with their fans.

 

They claim to be about creativity rather than doomscrolling is in reference to the challenges. Tapping into the human desire to be seen, to compete and win, and to be famous, these challenges motivate the young people (almost all girls) to create and post videos. This is what Coverstar deems as “boosting your creativity.”

But let’s be honest, nothing is inherently stopping them from scrolling through an endless feed of content.

#3 Safety

Coverstar is committed to providing a safe, positive space for all users, especially children. They claim they take child safety extremely seriously with a zero tolerance for child exploitation. Let’s look at their safety measures:

(1) The strongest safety feature offered is No Private or Direct Messages.

• DMs tend to be a harbor for cyberbullying, grooming, and predation online, so this is, indeed, a welcome feature.

 

(2) The app provides easy reporting tools.

 

(3) Private accounts are offered, but the DEFAULT is public.

• Videos posted in a challenge will still be public even if you’ve set your account to private

 

(4) Users under the age of 13 must have a parent complete a verification and consent process before creating an account.

• There are NO AGE VERIFICATIONS otherwise. Anyone could lie and say they are 13 and create an account.
• Even WORSE – there is NO MAXIMUM AGE! We had no problem creating an account as a 40-year-old – and there is NOTHING good, right, or healthy about an adult on this platform.

 

 

 

(5) Coverstar community guidelines clearly state that no bullying, harassment, bigotry, violence, threats, spam, trolling, misinformation, promotion, or sexual content is allowed.

• To their credit, we did not find any of this content in our research.
• The content we found was 8-15-year-old girls dancing, commenting on how pretty someone was, and begging for follows. This is not an age of violence and trolling – this is the age of desperation for validation and worth, which was everywhere.

 

(6) The Coverstar website states that every piece of content – every post, comment, and livestream – is reviewed using a combination of trained human moderators and AI-assisted tools. “AI helps flag risk faster, but humans make the final decisions to ensure accuracy and nuance.” Acknowledging no automated system is perfect, they claim to have 24/7 human oversight with their community safety team.

• 24/7 human oversight over hundreds of thousands of accounts is only possible with outsourced content moderation in countries such as the Philippines, Kenya, and Colombia.
• As with all content moderation, as reported, this means that men and women paid low (poverty) wages are reviewing all AI-flagged content and determining its appropriateness.

 

#4 “Go Viral, Get Verified”

Monetization may work for adult content creators, but introducing this to children under a banner of “positive and age-appropriate” is not a safety-as-our-top-priority move. Here are some of the less-public facing features of Coverstar:

• Getting verified: Creators who gain “significant popularity” may get their account verified. They claim there isn’t a specific number of follower count required, but a Reddit post indicates its 20k+. Coverstar says getting verified is all about a creator’s impact and engagement. Influencers from other platforms who come over to Coverstar can request to become verified immediately.
• Premium membership: Coverstar Premium is a paid subscription offering extra features such as no ads, an exclusive icon on your PFP, faster video posting, creating longer videos (vlogs, GRWM, hauls), and getting on the Premium Feed. It’s $7.99/month or $69.00/year.
• Starcoins: Packages can be purchased anywhere between $1 and $100. The coins are used for sending virtual gifts to verified creators during livestreams and purchasing customizations for your avatar.
• Monetization: Verified creators can livestream and receive virtual gifts (like emojis) from their fans (who purchased the access to these gifts with Starcoins). The Creator can then convert those virtual gifts to Starcoins and cash them in for real money. Sending gifts helps users earn a spot on the Top Live Viewer leaderboard for that streamer. It is also said that verified creators will follow you back if you send a gift.

 

#5 Rating, Recommendation & Biblical Considerations

Apple App Store: 4+
Google Play: T (Teen)
Coverstar: No specific age requirements, but users under 13 require obtaining parental consent to create an account.
Brave Parenting: Not recommended

It may seem strange that we are not recommending an app that is widely touted as the safest social media for kids. Bark Technologies rated the app as suitable for 10+ and gave it a 4.0/5 star rating. Bright Canary, a monitoring service like Bark, also recommends trying it.

The problem with Coverstar isn’t the lack of age verification, parental controls, or even its public-as-default accounts. The issue is the fundamental question:

Is this the best way for young girls to spend their time?

Creating ten-second videos of themselves (often in their bedroom)….dancing (often with moves they are too young to realize are inappropriate)….competing (begging, pleading, hustling) for likes and follows….comparing themselves to hundreds of thousands of girls….pushing products and brands in ‘haul’ videos….inviting strangers into their bedrooms as they get ready and put on makeup…

It’s tough to argue that this is a normal, healthy part of development.

This isn’t even communication!

Those who oppose the Australian Social Media Ban for children under 16 (or any social media restriction for that matter) argue that ‘social media’ is how young people communicate. If young teens lose social media, they’ll lose their ability to communicate with friends.

Coverstar proves that social media isn’t about communication because there is NO COMMUNICATION other than comments (which, we’ve read them – they are not communication). It’s about comparison and competition.

It is not self-expression; it is objectification.

The community guidelines may express clear boundaries around sexual content, but this is exploitation nonetheless. This is exploiting the vulnerabilities of young girls.

It is an environment created specifically for thousands of girls to come and post objectifying videos of themselves under the guise of creativity, self-expression, or worse, normality.

ANYONE with an email address can create an account and watch these girls’ videos. ANYONE! The problem isn’t just the predators who comment and DM – it’s also the ones who just sit back and watch.

Biblical Considerations

There is much that can be said, but at its core, Coverstar does not build human relationships, develop moral virtue, or point to what is good, right, and beautiful in the world. Here are a few ways the app defiles the life God calls His children to:

Humility

Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant.” (Mark 10:43)

Coverstar is built upon selfish ambition and vain conceit. No feature promotes humility or service.

Vanity

“Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” (Proverbs 31:30)

Coverstar pushes users to create “Get Ready With Me” (GRWM) and “Haul” (look at everything I just bought) videos that perpetuate a deceptive cycle of vanity and greed.

Futility

“Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.” (Eccl. 2:11)

Coverstar consumes time and energy on what will not last. Chasing followers and fame is like chasing the wind; it will never be caught, and there is nothing to be gained.

Performance

“For when Herodias’s daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you.”…..And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” (Mark 6:22,25)

Dancing as an expression of praise and worship has its place in Scripture. Dancing to draw attention to yourself or your body is not the same. Any dancing that stirs up sinful desires in us or others is sin.