TikTok recently unveiled a series of measures to improve the safety and privacy of teenagers aged 13-17 on its platform. According to TikTok, it hopes to help teenagers develop a healthier attitude towards social media so as not to affect their sleep. The company is taking seriously the recommendations of pediatric experts and youth welfare advocates.
TikTok has disabled private messages by default for users aged 16-17. To message others, they will need to actively switch to a different sharing option. This new default value builds on the previous change, which completely prohibits private messaging from accounts under 16 years old.
TikTok has added a pop-up that appears when teens under the age of 16 are ready to post their first video, asking them to select who can watch it. They will be unable to post their video until they have made a decision.
TikTok adds context to help 16-17-year-olds understand how downloads work, so they can choose who can download their public videos. By default, the option to download videos for teen users is not active. Before allowing others to download videos, users must confirm their choice.
TikTok limits the amount of time that younger teens can receive push notifications. Accounts 13-15 will no longer receive push notifications after 9 pm, and accounts 16-17 will have push notifications disabled beginning at 10 pm.
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