TikTok, the popular social media platform, has announced new features for teens and families, including one that affects users under the age of 18. Users under the age of 18 will now have a daily screen time limit of 60 minutes, but they will be able to opt-out and set their own limitations.
The team chose the 60-minute time limit after consulting current academic research and experts from Boston Children’s Hospital’s Digital Wellness Lab.
Cormac Keenan, TikTok’s Head of Trust and Safety, said “while there’s no collectively-endorsed position on how much screen time is ‘too much’ or even the impact of screen time more broadly, we recognize that teens typically require extra support as they start to explore the online world independently.”
Caregivers can use Family Pairing to set different daily screen limits for different days of the week. They will also have access to the screen time dashboard, which provides information such as the amount of time spent on the app, the number of times it was opened, and a breakdown of the total time spent.
Parents can also set more restrictions and disable notifications for their teenagers. Currently, users under 15 do not receive push notifications after 9 PM, and users aged 16-17 have them disabled after 10 PM.
TikTok’s Family Pairing feature has also been updated to allow as many parents or guardians as possible to set controls on their child’s account. It allows them to filter videos, set custom daily screen time limits, and schedule TikTok notifications to be muted.
