TikTok Introduces Parental Controls Amid Growing Concerns Over Teen Mental Health
In response to increasing scrutiny regarding the impact of excessive screen time on adolescents’ mental well-being, TikTok announced on Tuesday that it would allow parents to regulate the amount of time their teenagers can spend on the app. This new feature, which is launching immediately in the EU with plans to roll it out in the U.S. shortly thereafter, enables parents to set time limits or establish specific time windows for their teens’ usage of TikTok, according to a statement released on the company’s website.
The move mirrors an initiative introduced by Instagram, a platform owned by Meta, which rolled out similar parental controls several months prior.
Notably, TikTok’s “Time Away” feature is designed to be rigid; there will be no option for teens to bypass this block without parental intervention to deactivate it from the adult’s account. TikTok, which claims a user base of over one billion people generating short-form video content, also plans to introduce additional tools in the coming weeks. These tools will allow parents to monitor whom their children are following, identify their followers, and see whom they have blocked on the platform.
Furthermore, users under the age of 16 will have access to a “Meditation” function after 10 p.m., which will suggest relaxation exercises coupled with calming music. However, teens will be able to disable this feature if they choose.
These changes come as TikTok faces increased scrutiny in the EU and beyond regarding its effects on young users and concerns about its potential influence in political elections. In France, a parliamentary inquiry is set to begin this week to examine the psychological effects of the app on children, while Albania is considering a one-year ban of TikTok following a violent incident among teenagers allegedly fueled by disputes on the platform.
In a press briefing in Paris, TikTok revealed that it employs over 6,000 moderators dedicated to reviewing content in European languages alone, asserting that this number surpasses the total combined moderation efforts of other social media platforms. The company also reported that from July to September, moderators took action against more than 24 million accounts believed to belong to users under the app’s minimum age requirement of 13.
TikTok claims to effectively eliminate over 95% of inappropriate content within 24 hours, and reports that 90% of such material is removed before it is ever viewed.
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