TikTok introduced a new feature of Family Pairing this year, the aim of which was to provide a safe space for teenagers to create content, by allowing parents to link their TikTok account with their teen’s. The company is now expanding this feature to allow parents more control over regulating their teens’ activities on the platform.
The new tools offered in Family Pairing include Search (new), Screen Time Management, Restricted Mode, Comments (new), Discoverability, Liked Videos (new), and Direct Messages.
With Search, parents can decide whether their teen can search for content, hashtags, users, or sounds. The Screen Time Management Tool offers the parents the ability to set the time their teen spends on the platform each day. With the Restricted Mode, parents can choose to limit the appearance of content that they may find inappropriate for their teen in the For You feed.
Parents can also now decide who can comment on their teens’ videos. The options that they can choose from include: everyone, friends, and no one. The accounts’ discoverability can also be controlled by a parent as they can decide whether their teen’s account is private or public. Control over Liked Videos will help parents decide whether others can see the list of videos their teen has liked. Lastly, parents can also restrict who can send messages to their teen and can also turn the DM option off entirely.
TikTok also claims to continue enhancing its policies around youth safety and wellbeing. It has already taken a few steps in that matter, including adding more guidelines and resources to support body positivity and taking action against harmful content, such as hateful ideologies, by removing such content from the platform.
Moreover, TikTok has developed global partnerships to provide protection against child exploitation and has also endorsed implementation of the Voluntary Principles to Counter Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.
Regarding online safety, TikTok offers a number of resources for families, including Youth Portal, Parents page, educational safety videos, and more.
