This limits him to 60 minutes a day. tik tak browsing time by users under 18 to understand how much time young people spend in front of the application.

As Chinese-owned TikTok ByteDance announced today Wednesday, this new deadline will be automatically set in the coming weeks for every account owned by new users under 18 who will need to enter a code if they want to stay on the site. , application in 60 minutes.

“While there is no consensus on the ‘correct’ screen time or the impact of screen time in general, we consulted with academic researchers and experts from the Digital Wellness Lab at Children’s Hospital Boston to decide on this limit,” he notes in Cormac. This was announced by the head of the department of supervision and security of TikTok Keenan.

TikTok has said it will encourage new users to set their own daily usage time limit if they spend more than 100 minutes a day on the app, but have ditched the default 60-minute limit.

The path to a cutter in the use of social media has been paved by similar actions on other platforms. Instagram launched a new parental control last year that allows guardians to see how much time their kids are spending and set limits.

TikTok’s new policy comes into effect ahead of its CEO Show Tzu Chu’s speech before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 23.

Guarantees and “married couple”

Some MPs are demanding more information from the company about the impact of media use on young people amid growing concern and new complaints about harmful content and possible sexual exploitation of minors on the platform.

With its short and addictive videos, the app has become a magnet for kids and teens. While the use of the platform is allowed for children over the age of 13, younger children can also access it, albeit with restrictions on certain features.

The company, which insists it takes steps to protect young users and constantly improves its security measures, introduced a new parental control tool in 2020, the so-called “family connection” (Family Connection), which gave parents the ability to limit the time of use as well as the type of content.

Parents and guardians still have the option to limit who can send messages to their children, or turn off instant messaging altogether.

“The tip of the iceberg”

Critics of the platform, while hailing the time limit initiative, call it the “tip of the iceberg” in terms of the company’s response to exposure to new users.

“TikTok has conquered the hearts and minds of people aged 14 to 24 in the US and UK. This is a crack in the algorithms, the most exciting, the most dangerous, and the one that needs to be dealt with urgently,” said Imran Ahmed, director of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, who recently published a study showing that the TikTok algorithm is bombarding young people. people with dangerous content.

Source: Wall Street Journal/BBC.