TikTok Introduces Calming Features to Promote Healthy Screen Time for Teens

TikTok Introduces New Features for Teen Safety

TikTok is taking significant steps to enhance teen safety on its platform by rolling out a new feature aimed at encouraging healthier usage habits. This feature primarily targets users under the age of 16, prompting them to wind down their activities late at night.

Wind Down Reminder

Starting from 10 PM, if a teen is still active on TikTok, they will receive a full-screen "wind down" reminder. This notification plays calming music to assist users in relaxing and being more mindful of their screen time. If the initial reminder is ignored, a secondary reminder will appear, which is notably harder to dismiss.

Future Plans for the Wind Down Feature

TikTok is not stopping here; they plan to enhance the wind down feature further by incorporating meditation exercises into the reminders in the forthcoming weeks.

Updates to Family Pairing Feature

In addition to the wind down reminder, TikTok is also improving its Family Pairing feature. This allows parents to impose restrictions on their child’s account, and a new "Time Away" function will be introduced. This will enable parents or caregivers to block TikTok access during specific hours and set a recurring schedule for these limitations.

Parental Controls

• View following and followers of their child’s account.
• Identify accounts that their child has blocked.

Age Verification Efforts

TikTok is committed to maintaining safety for younger users by employing age assurance technology, including machine learning, to verify the age of its users. Their collaboration with telecom company Telefonica aims to better utilize age data from users' phone providers to confirm ages accurately. Similarly, Google has announced its initiatives to utilize machine learning for estimating users' ages.

Legal Landscape and Child Safety

The introduction of these features comes at a time when online child safety is a growing concern among lawmakers. Recently, Utah became the first state to enact a law mandating app store operators like Google and Apple to verify user ages during the download process. While other states are attempting to implement laws restricting children’s access to social media, many legal challenges have arisen, hindering their effectiveness.

Explore More with TikTok

TikTok's commitment to improving the online experience for teens reflects the platform's dedication to fostering safer social media interaction. Parents can make use of these new features to help guide their children's social media habits effectively.

For those interested in an enriching interactive experience, explore the new features on TikTok today!