TikTok has announced a feature that would limit the amount of time teenagers spend using the app
TikTok has introduced many new features with the intention of reducing the amount of time its younger users spend in front of their screens and improving their overall health and well-being.
According to a report from The Verge, beginning soon, every TikTok user who is under the age of 18 will be automatically subject to a daily screen time under 60 minutes.
Those adolescents who have reached this limit are compelled to enter a passcode before they are allowed to continue watching.
Users have the ability to completely disable the feature; however, if they do so and more than 100 minutes per day use Tiktok, they will be prompted to set a new cap on the amount of time they can spend using the app.
TikTok reports that the usage of its screen time control tools increased by 234% after the 1st month of testing, which occurred after these reminders were implemented.
Teenagers will receive a weekly summary by inbox message, the amount of time they spend using the app. This will allow youngers to know the time that they have spent using
TikTok will require them to make a conscious decision in order to use the app for longer than is recommended.
TikTok claims that in order to determine how long the time restriction should be, it consulted professionals from the Children’s Hospital lab the Digital Wellbeing at Boston as well as recent academic research.
TikTok’s Head of Trust and Safety, Cormac Keenan, acknowledged in a statement that while there is no universally agreed-upon definition of “too much” screen time or the effects of screen time in general, teenagers do need additional guidance when they begin to navigate the internet on their own.
TikTok for Younger Users
Children those have the age of 13 years who use the “TikTok for Younger Users” app will also be held accountable for the time limit of 60 minutes.
In this scenario, if the maximum amount of time spent looking at a screen is exceeded, the guardian or a parent must create a new passcode or enter an existing one in order to enable an additional 30 minutes of watch time on the account.
Family Pairing is an adjustable parental restriction that allows a guardian or a parent to attach a TikTok account to the account of a younger user.
TikTok is currently adding four new features to the Family Pairing feature as part of this update. By making use of custom limitations, it is possible to modify the restrictions in accordance with the day of the week.
Family pairing users also have access to TikTok’s screen time dashboard, which provides information regarding the amount of time spent by a child using the app, the frequency with which it was opened, and a breakdown of the amount of time spent at various times of the day and night.
Mute Notifications Settings
With the upcoming addition of a “Mute Notifications” setting, parents of children will be able to pre-schedule the silencing of app notifications that appear on their children’s accounts.
Users who are 13 to 15 years old already have their push muted notifications at 9 pm automatically, and users who are 16 and 17 years old have their push notifications turned off at 10 pm.
Last but not least, TikTok asserts that it is working on content filters that will allow parents to block their children’s access to videos that contain words or hashtags that they deem inappropriate for their children to view.
During the following weeks, the company plans to design the feature in collaboration with ” youth, parents, and civil society organizations.”
Some of these settings will be made available to all accounts “soon”, TikTok has announced. This will give users the ability to schedule muted notifications and create individual screen time limits for each day of the week.
This news comes on the heels of the introduction of the Family Pairing feature. By using the newly added “sleep reminder” feature, app users can select when they want to be prompted to log out of the app and head to bed.
TikTok has not disclosed the specific date on which the new features will become available to users.
