TikTok will limit accounts it knows belong to users under the age of 18 to an hour of screen time each day, amid a flight of new features it says are intended to help teens manage and be more intentional about how much time they spend on the app.
The social media platform announced a suit a new features Thursday that are expected to begin rolling out over the next few weeks. So what are the changes and will they have any practical effect?
Is the new TikTok screen time limit enforced?
TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media app where uses post short-form videos, announced the changes this week, which include defaulting all accounts belonging to teens to a one-hour-a-day limit, along with other "safety features" it says will help protect kids online.
But the same setting that prompts a pop-up to appear over the screen when a user under the age of 18 hits their hour limit appears to also include a button where it can be manually overridden or turned off completely.
The app also doesn't undertake any age verification when new users sign up, instead relying on the honour code when it prompts for a date of birth as part of the onboarding process.
TikTok does, however, require users to prove their date of birth by sending a government ID through to their support team if a user tries to change their age after signing up.
How TikTok Family Pairing works and how to set it up
Parents can manage teens' screen time through a "family pairing" feature that includes customisable restrictions and a dashboard delivering data on how long kids are spending on the app.
Family Pairing has been around for a while, but it also relies on the honesty system as teens and parents must opt in to allowing parental oversight on kids' account(s) via a linking set-up process on both devices.
The Family Pairing feature can be accessed from an adult's account by going to the app's Settings and Privacy page and following the prompts.
The new default settings for underage accounts join a suite of other safety rules which automatically turns all accounts belonging to children to private, as well as limiting access to direct messaging, push notifications, community features and live streaming for teenage users.
The restrictions progressively roll back as users get older.
How much screen time is too much?
TikTok said it consulted these academic research reports on adolescent media use and intentional internet use in choosing the time limit, but said that "there's no collectively-endorsed position on the 'right' amount of screen time or even the impact of screen time more broadly".
The new default screen time limit builds on a prompt TikTok released last year aimed at "encouraging teens to enable screen time management on their accounts". The company said the roll-out increased screen time management on the app exponentially.
These new changes are the latest to come in the wake of a 2021 UK government ruling introducing new regulations and the prospect of fines for global tech companies that did not adhere to the country's new "age appropriate design" rules, aimed at requiring social media giants to be more aware of how kids were using their products.
The regulations came into effect in the UK in September that year, prompting TikTok, Instagram and YouTube to instigate a series of changes and restrictions to underage accounts that were ultimately applied wholesale around the world.
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How uses reacted to TikTok changing its screen time rules
Sceptics have pointed out that while ever the screen time limit function comes with a baked in option to turn it off, the potential practical impacts of the move remain unclear at best.
The cyber-safety trainer Safe On Social described the changes in a Facebook post overnight as "confusing" and urged parents and carers to take a proactive role in managing their kids' safety online.
"Family Pairing (which has been around for quite some time) allows parents to restrict some content and place restrictions on who the child can message on the app," the organisation, which provides education and training resources for online safety, said in its post, adding: "Family Pairing requires a strong level of trust between parent and child to ensure the child declares their account or accounts to their parent and agrees to be part of the Family Pairing system. It will work in some cases but not others."
Others have viewed the move as a good faith effort by the social media giant, which exploded in popularity during in 2020 as a response to social lockdowns and the global COVID-19 pandemic, to regulate how teenagers use their services.
Most have noted that the system relies on good faith engagement from users.
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