- TikTok introduces feature for parents to block sensitive content for children
- Balancing safety and participation rights: TikTok’s approach to content filters
- Online Safety Bill progress and potential access to deceased children’s phone data
As the UK’s long-awaited Online Safety Bill nears fruition, a new feature that parents can use to safeguard their children from sensitive content is being introduced.
TikTok has enabled parents and guardians to block videos they do not want their children to view.
The tool expands the app’s family pairing feature, which lets parents set screen time limits for their teens.
Users of TikTok could already define their content filters, allowing them to avoid videos containing particular words or hashtags.
Julie de Bailliencourt, global director of product policy, stated that allowing parents to configure them was primarily for user safety.
However, adolescents will initially only be alerted to the filters chosen by their parents and cannot opt in.
Ms. De Bailliencourt stated, “We wanted to strike the right balance between pragmatism and transparency to enable families to choose the best experience for their own family, as every family is unique.”
“We also wanted to ensure that the participation rights of young people are respected. Therefore, by default, teens can view the keywords inserted by their parent or guardian.”
It comes after the company was criticized for exposing children to self-harm and eating disorder recordings, which are sometimes shared using “coded” hashtags – phrases with altered spellings – to circumvent the platform’s moderation.
Ms. De Bailliencourt hoped the feature would “spark a conversation” about teen-parent online boundaries.
The government’s long-awaited Online Safety Bill includes an optional element after a House of Lords committee’s final day of assessment.
Coroners and bereaved parents may be granted access to the data on the phones of deceased children, as a result of a last-minute amendment to the proposed legislation that seeks to regulate online content to protect people.
It follows a campaign by parents whose children’s fatalities were attributed to social media use.
TikTok merely said it is working with the government on the amendment.
Due to ByteDance’s ownership, the platform was barred from UK government phones early this year.
Later this year, TikTok will launch a global youth council comprised of young people who use the platform.
It will work like TikTok’s content and safety advisory councils, which advise on moderation.
Meanwhile, the company stated that its policies regarding election misinformation had not changed following YouTube’s decision to cease removing false claims that the 2020 US election was stolen.
The Google-owned platform announced the change earlier this month, reversing a policy that had been in effect since after the last presidential election, which Donald Trump incorrectly asserts was fraudulent.
