TikTok wants adolescents to spend less time in front of the screen and therefore will apply a measure that will limit the use of the app to a maximum of 60 minutes per day. This feature will begin rolling out in the coming weeks and will affect users under the age of 18.
According to they explained from the popular video app, henceforth, the limit of one hour per day it will be activated automatically in the accounts of all users between the ages of 13 and 18. But it is important to note that this is not an immovable barrier. Once the young people use up the available minutes for a session, they will be able to enter a code to continue browsing the publications.
TikTok wants teens to take an active decision to extend their screen time. However, the 60 minute per day restriction can be completely disabled. Although in case of doing so, users will be forced to establish a new limit, as long as they exceed 100 minutes browsing the application.
How effective this new TikTok feature can be is still a mystery. However, from the platform they have been confident of achieving positive results. “This builds on an advisory we implemented last year to encourage teens to enable screen time management. Our tests found that this helped increase the use of our Screen Time tools by 234%. Additionally, we will send each teen account a weekly notification with a summary of their screen time.”
TikTok applies a limit to the daily use of its app
So far we have talked about the changes that TikTok will implement in the accounts of adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18. However, a similar strategy has also been adopted for even younger users. Those in charge of the app indicated that children under 13 will also see their daily use time limited to 60 minutes by default. However, they will be able to extend it for an additional 30 minutes, as long as a parent or responsible adult enters a code to enable it.
TikTok ensures that the implementation of the limit of up to 60 minutes of daily use is not on a whim, but a decision endorsed by professionals. “While there is no collectively supported position on the ‘right’ amount of screen time, or even the impact of screen time in general, we consulted current academic research and experts at the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital to choose this limit,” they explained from the company.
Another interesting novelty that comes from TikTok is the implementation of new features to the function Family Pairing. It provides parental control tools by pairing an adult’s account with that of their dependent children or minors. From now on, custom daily time limits can be set; schedule notifications from teen accounts to go silent at a specific time and for a specified period of time, and analyze all the activity information the teens pass in front of the screen.
In the latter case, TikTok will incorporate a panel with details of the total time spent browsing the app. But it will also inform how many times per day do they access the platformand how much time they spend watching videos during the day and night.
