TikTok is expanding its family features to provide parents with more options for tailoring their teens’ accounts and introducing a feature to help teens build balanced digital habits.
Simple supervision tools for families
Since launching Family Pairing – TikTok’s parenting controls – five years ago, TikTok continuously adds new features based on feedback from families, as well as guidance from leading experts. TikTok’s latest update enhances Family Pairing by launching a way for parents to block their teens from being on TikTok during times that they control.
- Time Away Feature
No teen or family is the same, and whether it’s during family time, school, at night, or a weekend away, caregivers can use the new Time Away feature to decide when it’s best for their teens to take a break. Parents can also set a reoccuring schedule to best suit their family life. If plans change, teens can request extra time, but parents make the final decision.
- Visibility on Followers
TikTok is also adding a Family Pairing feature that can allow parents to see who their teen is following on TikTok, and who follows them, along with accounts their teen has blocked. With increased visibility into their teen’s network, parents will be better equipped to have ongoing conversations and help their teens develop the digital literacy skills they need.
- Report Alerts
Parents also want to know more about the content their teens engage with on TikTok. In response, in the coming months, when a teen reports a video they think may be against TikTok’s rules, they can choose to alert a parent, caregiver, or other trusted adult at the same time, even if they aren’t using Family Pairing.
With these latest updates, parents can now view or adjust more than 15 safety, well-being, and privacy features. This includes:
- Re-enabling TikTok’s feed dedicated to STEM, if their teen has turned it off. This is now available in more than 100 countries and is enjoyed by millions of teens every week.
- Setting customizable daily screen time limits. For example, parents could choose to limit their teens to 30 minutes on TikTok during the week but a little longer on a weekend. Once a parent-set limit has been reached, a teen can only use TikTok if their parent shares a unique passcode. Even if a parent doesn’t customize their teen’s settings, everyone under 18 has a 60 minute daily screen time limit by default.
- Switching their teen’s account back to the default private setting, if their teen has made it public.
Helping teens learn balanced digital habits
- Wind Down Feature
TikTok is also announcing a new way to encourage young people to switch off at night. If a teen under 16 is on TikTok after 10pm, their For You feed will be interrupted with the new wind down feature. At launch, this is a full-screen takeover with calming music to help teens relax and be mindful of the time. If a teen decides to spend additional time on TikTok after the first reminder, there will be a second, harder to dismiss, full-screen prompt. As part of TikTok’s commitment to digital well-being, push notifications are disabled for teens at night by default and cannot be changed. These features were designed to reflect best practices in behavioural change theory by providing positive nudges that can help teens develop balanced long-term habits. TikTok will continue to test adding meditation exercises to the wind down reminder, as research shows that mindful meditation can improve sleep quality.
