TikTok has launched a new feature for parents to block access for their teenagers, so they are not on the social network during the hours they choose to control, in addition to another that allows them to see who their teenagers follow, who follows them, and the accounts their children have blocked.
These, along with a meditation feature in the app, are new features announced this Tuesday by TikTok to offer parents more options to customize their minor children's accounts and help teenagers develop "balanced digital habits," as reported by Efe.
The first of these actions is called "scheduled disconnect time" and is included in the "family sync" tool, TikTok's parental control feature launched five years ago.
"There are no two teenagers or families alike, and whether it's during family time, school, at night, or during a weekend away, parents and guardians can use the new 'scheduled disconnect time' feature to decide when it's best for their teenagers to take a break," explains a note from the social network.
The other feature, also within "family sync", allows parents to see who their teenage child follows, who follows them, and the accounts their child has blocked.
"We provide parents with more transparency about their teenagers' network," Valiant Richey, TikTok's Global Head of Outreach and Safety Partnerships, summarized to Efe via video call, enabling a better understanding of what is happening, identifying potential issues, and maintaining ongoing conversations about the experience.
Additionally, in the coming months, when a teenager reports a video that violates community guidelines, they can choose to simultaneously notify one of their parents, their guardian, or another trusted adult, even if they are not a user of the "family sync" tool.
With these updates worldwide, more than 15 safety, well-being, and privacy features of minors' accounts can be easily adjusted and also from a distance, assures Richey.
These additions complement existing features such as switching the teenager's account to private settings by default if it was made public, setting personalized daily screen time limits, or reactivating content dedicated to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics if it was deactivated.
TikTok has also announced a new way to encourage teenagers to disconnect at night. If a minor under 16 opens the app after 10:00 p.m., their 'For You' feed - personalized content - will be interrupted with the new "sleep schedule" feature.
This takes up the full screen and plays relaxing music; if they choose to spend more time after the first reminder, a second full-screen warning, harder to ignore, will be displayed.
In the coming weeks, TikTok will also test adding meditation exercises to the relaxation reminder.
Age verification is one of the most complex areas. TikTok says it removes around 20 million accounts of minors under 13 years old worldwide every quarter and continues to use technology, such as machine learning, to prevent it.
Regarding the possibility of countries like Spain raising the minimum age from 14 to 16 to access (without parental consent), Richey responds that each person's relationship with social networks is different.
"And that is one of the reasons why regulatory efforts, which are very broad, can be challenging because they do not allow for a tailored experience (...)".
Experts have recommended looking at "options that offer safeguards," he says. "And then we offer personalized tools for teenagers, and we will continue to closely monitor regulatory developments and assess the situation from there."