TikTok has announced the development of a tool that will allow parents to prevent their teens from viewing content on the short-form video app that contains specific words or hashtags, as the embattled company seeks to improve its public image.
TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese tech company ByteDance, is under renewed scrutiny around the world due to its close ties to the Chinese government and the protection of user data. Due to security concerns, the app, which is extremely popular among younger users, has been banned from government-owned phones in the United States, Canada, and other countries.
According to World Population Review, the top three African countries with the most Tik Tok users are Nigeria (223,804,632), Ethiopia (126,527,060) and Egypt (112,716,598).
TikTok, like other social media apps, has been criticised for not doing enough to protect teens from inappropriate content.
The parental control feature is still in the works, and the app will consult with parenting, youth, and civil society organisations to design it, according to TikTok.
It also announced new features to assist users in limiting their time spent on the app. TikTok said in a blog post that accounts belonging to users under the age of 18 will automatically have a time limit of one hour per day, and teens will need to enter a passcode to continue using the app.
If teens remove the daily limit and continue to scroll TikTok for more than 100 minutes per day, the app will prompt them to set time limits. According to the company, parents will now be able to set custom time limits for their teens’ TikTok usage based on the day of the week.