Young people are spending more and more hours in front of the screen after more than two years of the pandemic and self-isolation. Many parents are concerned that their children spend endless hours glued to their mobile phones, computers, and tablets playing, studying, or spending time on social media.

To soften the criticism, social media platform TikTok, a popular video creation and sharing platform, has introduced a new feature that limits the amount of time kids spend on the app. In particular, a limit of 60 minutes per day for users under the age of 18 was recently announced in order to make screen time visible, understandable and, above all, more conscious. from youth.

Anyone under the age of 18 will receive a notification stating how much time they have spent “in front of a screen”. That is, if the 60-minute limit is reached, teens will be asked to enter a password to continue watching, meaning they will be asked to actively decide to extend that time.

Experts believe that the new regulation is positive, but cannot solve the problem of the safety of minors. TikTok is under fire for its highly addictive algorithm. Child psychologists and activists recently compared the platform to addictive substances.

In a conversation with APE-MBE, Dr. Veronica Samara, International Advisor for Digital Literacy and Internet Safety and Coordinator of the Saferinternet.gr campaign, emphasizes that the safety of minors should not only depend on the rules set by the platforms, but also be a consequence of the development of personal responsibility and critical thinking from an early age.

TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. China has its own version of TikTok called Douyin, and it offers a very different experience than what’s available in the West for kids. For example, it is limited to 40 minutes of daily use for children under 14 and is not available from 10 pm to 6 am. For many, this should be a warning to lawmakers in the West who argue that Tik Tok’s algorithms can harm children.

The role of parents, who are often not as familiar with the Internet as their children are, is crucial. A parent will not let his child walk down the street without some guidance. The same is true with social networks. They need guidance.

“How can any rules be satisfactory where a user can enter any date of birth on social media platforms and create an account as an adult? We just need to teach our children to respect their obligations online and to ensure their rights while protecting them from potential dangers,” emphasizes Dr. Veronica Samara in an interview with APE-MPE.

She adds: “Based on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), minors under the age of 15 in Greece are prohibited from using any social media platform unless they have obtained parental consent. In addition, no platform can be 100% secure, even for adult users, unless the well-known basic rules of internet security are themselves followed.”

Apart from browsing time, there are other issues in social media usage, especially by children.

“I like to talk not about risks, but about problems on the Internet. And the most important of them are the protection of privacy, our own and others, the development of empathy, so that before we publish anything on the Internet, we think about whether such a post can harm someone else, as well as knowing the real meaning the word friend. “to avoid connecting with strangers online and therefore possible bad consequences. In addition, parents should enable children to maintain a healthy balance of time spent on interpersonal, physical and online activities, and encourage them to pursue their hobbies and talents” .

“As I mentioned above,” says Veronica Samara, “development of critical thinking from an early age is also key to the ability to distinguish truth from lies on the Internet. Finally, it’s important to build our kids’ self-esteem and help them develop resilience so they don’t look for ways to please others over the internet.”

And concludes: “Social networks are an integral part of everyday life of teenagers, and not only. It is now a large part of the Internet, it is, I would say, one of its many tools, which is widely used even by businesses for our daily communication with them. So, like any tool, if you use it correctly, responsibly and – why not – creatively, then everything will be fine.

Ultimately, social media platforms like TikTok face a critical existential question: whether to take action “at the expense” of one’s own success to keep children safe.

Source: RES-IPE