TikTok announced today that any user under 18 will soon have a screen time limit of one hour per day by default. It’s one of social media’s most drastic measures to curb teens’ endless scrolling, CNN writes.
Teen users of TikTok do have the option to disable this new default, which will be introduced in the coming weeks. But the feature change could improve the digital wellbeing of younger users by requiring them to opt out of this stricter screen time limit.
When the 60 minute limit is reached, users will be prompted to enter a password, which will force them to make a clear decision about the time they spend watching videos on the app. For accounts where the user is under the age of 13, a parent or guardian must set or enter an access code to allow an additional 30 minutes of viewing time when the original limit of 60 minutes is reached.
Some safety features already exist for teen accounts on TikTok, for example accounts are set to private by default for users between 13 and 15 years old and only users who are 16 years old or older can message other users.
Concern
This remarkable move comes after TikTok and other social media platforms have been criticized for years for their impact on young users, especially from concerned parents. TikTok is also under increasing pressure from Washington, which is concerned about the security of its ties with China (via parent company Bytedance), including a renewed discussion about a possible ban of the app in the US.
Cormac Keenan, TikTok’s trust and safety officer, said the company consulted researchers and experts at the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital to determine time limits for teen users. “While there is no collectively agreed position on how much screen time is ‘too much’, or even the impact of screen time in general, we recognize that teens usually need additional support as they begin to explore the online world on their own,” writes Keenan in a blog post.
Keenan adds that if a teen decides to turn off the new default limit and spends more than 100 minutes a day on TikTok, they will be prompted to set a daily screen time limit for themselves. “In our first month of testing, this approach increased usage of our screen time management tools by 234%,” writes Keenan.
updates
TikTok announced a number of new features for all users, including the ability to set custom screen time limits for each day of the week and the ability for users to set a schedule to mute notifications. The company is also launching a sleep reminder to help remind people when they want to be offline at night. For the sleep function, users can set a time and when the time comes, a pop-up will appear telling the user that it is time to log out.
Keenan also announced some updates to the app’s Family Pairing feature, which allows a parent to link their TikTok account to their teen’s to set up checks, among other things. Parents will be able to filter videos with words or hashtags they don’t want to see in their teen’s feed, set a custom daily screen time limit for their teen, and set a custom schedule to mute TikTok notifications sent to their teen.
Other platforms like Instagram and Snapchat have similarly instituted extra parental controls and features that encourage teens to set boundaries.
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