What do you want to know
- TikTok is readying new parental controls to monitor teenagers’ screen time.
- Parents will soon have a customizable daily screen time limit for their teens.
- A new dashboard will be included which shows the total time spent using TikTok and the number of times it has been opened.
- Sleep reminders are also coming soon for all users.
As TikTok continues to consume the lives of many young adults, the platform is introducing new ways parents can help monitor their children and limit their app usage.
From a TikTok Press release, in the coming weeks, all accounts registered for a user under the age of 18 will have a screen time limit of one hour by default. The platform explains that a teenager’s caregiver can customize their daily screen time limit based on the day of the week or scenario (like a holiday). TikTok explains that while this one-hour limit will be set automatically for users under 13, a parent or guardian will need to enter a password to add an additional 30 minutes.
Additionally, parents will soon find a new Screen Time Dashboard with this upcoming update. The dashboard will offer information such as how much screen time their child spent, how often they opened TikTok, and a breakdown of time spent during the day and night. The company cites a Research study it was held in the hope of giving parents as many tools as possible to guide their teens.
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The latest feature lets parents set a window of time to silence TikTok notifications on their teen’s phone. This builds on the already existing feature where accounts with registered users aged 13-15 have their notifications turned off at 9pm. Those aged 16 and 17 automatically have the sound muted after 10 p.m.
These three new options will be added for parents in Family matchwhich is a parental control hub that guardians can use to better manage what’s happening with TikTok on their teen’s phone.
In addition to monitoring your teen, TikTok will add sleep reminders to the platform. Users will soon be able to set when it’s time to shut down TikTok and get a good night’s rest. When the set time is reached during the night, a popup window will appear, alerting the user that it is time to close the application.
The upcoming new features, especially the new customizable 60-minute limit, are supported by TikTok’s new approach to encouraging healthier practices. The platform will prompt teens to set the 60-minute limit themselves, especially if more than 100 hours have been spent on the app. However, if a teenager refuses, a parent can always set a limit themselves via Family Matching.
TikTok’s new checks follow similar moves made by competitor Instagram last year, introducing ways to limit and monitor teens using the platform, especially around Reels.