Short video service (TikTok) today launched new features that allow parents to remotely place restrictions on their children's accounts,...
The new feature - called "Family Pairing" - allows parents to link their children's accounts to their accounts, as they will be able to disable direct messages, turn on restricted content mode, and set a maximum view.
It is noteworthy that this step comes in the context of the improvements initiated by Tik Tok earlier, especially after the company paid in February 2019 a fine of $ 5.7 million to the US Federal Trade Commission due to alleged violations of the American Children's Privacy Act, from By allowing children under the age of 13 to create an account without parental consent.
Since then, Tik Tok has made changes to comply with the law, and added features, such as screen time limits, to give users and parents more control over the app, which is very popular among teens. The service began rolling out these same features under the name (Family Safety Mode) in Europe earlier this year.
With today's update, setting these limits is much easier. Once two accounts are linked, parents can control the child’s settings from their phone. Previously, they had to set these restrictions within the app on the child’s device. The update also comes with the ability to set passcodes that some settings cannot be turned off without approval.
Parents still have to get their children to agree to link their accounts under the new system. To do this, parents need to scan the QR code within the child’s digital well-being section. Children will be able to disable the feature at any time, however there are some drawbacks, such as: that parents will receive a notification if this happens.
In addition to the new features, Tik Tok has disabled direct messages to all users under the age of 16.
