Short-video sharing app, TikTok has said it will implement an automatic 60-minute screen-time limit for all users under the age of 18.
When the 60-minute limit is reached, teens will be prompted to enter a passcode to continue watching videos on the social media app, “requiring them to make an active decision” to keep scrolling, the company said.
According to Cormac Keenan, TikTok’s head of trust and safety, users who are under 13, will also have their daily screen-time limit set to 60 minutes and to continue viewing for another extra 30 minutes, they would require a passcode which would be entered by a parent or guardian.
Although teens 13, and older users can ignore or opt out of the 60-minute settings, however, if the users disable the 60-minute screen time limit and spend more than 100 minutes on the app per day, they will be prompted by TikTok to set a daily screen time limit.
TikTok will also send every teen account weekly inbox notifications of their screen time history on the app. TikTok released this new update “encourage teens to enable screen time management,” last year, Keenan disclosed, which showed, according to results, an increase in the use of the screen time tools by 234%.
Keenan said, “While there’s no collectively endorsed position on the ‘right’ amount of screen time or even the impact of screen time more broadly, we consulted the current academic research and experts from the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital in choosing this limit,”
TikTok is also adding three new parental control features which are; the ability of caregivers to use TikTok’s family Pairing feature to make changes to daily screen-time limits for teens, which may include choosing different time limits depending on the day of the week; a screen-time dashboard which shows a summary of the time spent on the app as well as several time TikTok was opened, and a breakdown of total time spent during the day and at night on the app; it also added a new setting which allows parents to set a schedule that mute the notifications from TikTok for their teen.
TikTok, disclosed that users account from age 13-15 do not receive push notifications from 9 p.m while users aged 16-17 do not receive push notifications from 10 p.m