Teens who sign up for TikTok will be limited to an hour of use each day, but only for as long as it takes them to understand they can adjust the settings manually.
According to the firm, new default screen time limitations will be enabled for every account known to belong to someone under the age of 18. Following the first hour’s use each day, the app will alert them their time is over, “so it’s easy to log off”.
But, parents hoping for an intervention – or young people battling with their own obsessive behavior – may find the respite fleeting because the restriction may be changed or eliminated entirely in the app’s settings. If the user removes the restriction and then continues to use the app for more than 100 minutes per day, the app will offer them to set a new restriction, which TikTok claims will at least require users to make an active decision on their continuous usage.
Parents who want unchangeable limits can use TikTok’s “family pairing” capabilities
Parents who want unchangeable limits can use the app’s “family pairing” capabilities, which allow them to attach their own TikTok account to their child’s. These have been changed to allow for more stringent restrictions. A family pairing account allows parents to set a custom screen-time limit for their children that cannot be changed. They can even establish a custom schedule to silence notifications, ensuring their children are not awakened late at night.
“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,” said Cormac Keenan, the company’s head of trust and safety. “Research also shows that being more aware of how we spend our time can help us be more intentional about the decisions we make, and this is especially important but typically more difficult for younger audiences.”
Social media platforms have a strong incentive to provide their own screen-time limitations in the event that users activate the harsher controls built into both the iOS and Android smartphone platforms.
New laws enacted in 2021 compel technology companies to be more aware of how minors use their services. On Wednesday, the first formal complaint under these laws was filed against a major digital corporation, with a father of three saying that YouTube was inappropriately acquiring data from those under-13s.
