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TikTok has announced a set of new parental control features in response to growing concerns over excessive screen time and its impact on teen mental health. These updates are designed to provide parents with greater oversight of their children’s activities on the platform while promoting healthier digital habits.
The latest update includes the “Time Away” feature, which enables parents to designate specific periods during which their teenager is prohibited from using TikTok. The Time Away protocol creates essential offline periods for teenagers by blocking teenage TikTok access during daytime school hours and nighttime or family eating times.
Parents now have a more comprehensive understanding of their teenager’s virtual interactions than they did before the latest update. The latest TikTok feature allows parents to access their child’s follower lists, view the accounts their adolescent follows, and view information about blocked accounts. The goal of the new feature is to facilitate frank discussions regarding online protection and assist parents in instructing their children on responsible digital relationship management techniques.
The inclusion of TikTok’s wind-down feature is intended to promote more responsible screen usage patterns among users under the age of 16. A new app function generates full-screen notifications that play soothing music when adolescents remain active on the platform after 10:00 p.m. The company is also testing meditation exercises to improve sleep quality, though the rollout date for this feature is yet to be announced.
TikTok stated that these updates reflect “best practices in behavioral change theory by providing positive nudges that can help teens develop balanced long-term habits.”
With over one billion users globally, TikTok has faced increasing scrutiny over its impact on young users. Government Officials, industry experts, and regulators have urged more security standards for social media networks, notably in terms of content filtering, privacy safeguards, and time limits. These latest additions are comparable to safety features announced by Instagram and Apple to monitor underage digital connections.
These new features will first be rolled out in the EU, followed by the United States, as TikTok continues its efforts to strengthen online safety and parental supervision tools.
