Will These New TikTok Guidelines Actually Protect Children?
By Movieguide® Contributor
TikTok has implemented new safeguards to protect children online, and while that seems like a win, some people are skeptical.
The controversial Chinese-owned app will now have a feature called “family pairing” that “allows parents, guardians, and teens to customize their safety settings based on individual needs. A parent or guardian can link their TikTok account to their teen’s account and set controls.”
An additional part of the new safety feature includes reoccurring messages from the app that begin to pop up at night. TikTok will send teen accounts a message recommending that they “wind down.” Although the message can we bypassed, it will continue until the user chooses to exit the app.
These features are all in effort to combat the rising and concerning addiction to screens and social media, but some parents say it’s not enough.
Titania Jordan, chief parent officer at online safety company Bark Technologies, believes the new security is a joke.
“I can’t believe that all the smart people working at TikTok think that the general population of parents will, A, accept this; B, use this; C, find this meaningful in any way, shape, or form,” she said in an Instagram reel. “Seriously, what are they thinking?”
Related: 5 Signs You’re Addicted to Social Media and How to Fight It
She added, “TikTok must think that every parent is just a complete idiot… I read it over, it seemed super fluffy, especially the meditation part,” she said. “Like, no, you’re not going to get kids to meditate within Tiktok—especially if you’ve curated an addictive algorithm of things they are most interested in!”
The negative effects of social media have been of increasing, leaving parents nervous and concerned.
Movieguide® previously reported:
Experts have drawn a troubling connection between social media use and rising mental health issues in young people. Dr. Vinitha Moopen with WellSpan Health told Fox43 that physicians have seen ‘a large increase’ in children suffering from depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation and issues with self-image, as well as kids who have trouble interacting with people face-to-face as opposed to on a screen. A 2014 study from UCLA supports this finding — the study found that kids who went screen-free for five days were better at reading emotional cues than children who had access to screens for those same five days.
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