TikTok to set 60-minute daily screen time limit for under 18s

TikTok is setting a 60-minute daily screen time limit for users who are aged under 18.

If young people hit the new limit, they will have to enter a passcode to continue to use the service that day. But they will be able to opt out of the new measure, which TikTok says will be rolled out “in the coming weeks”, BBC has reported.

The video app, which is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, said it is introducing the feature to help people “stay in control” of their use.

TikTok said the new limit comes after it brought in a prompt last year to encourage teens to manage their screen time. It said this helped “increase the use of our screen time tools by 234%”.

Users of the platform have to be at least 13, and, as part of this new feature, anyone under the age of 18 will receive a weekly notification with a “recap of their screen time”.

Critics of the video app welcomed the screen time limit, but described it as the “tip of the iceberg” when it comes to TikTok’s response to young users’ exposure to the platform.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate recently published research showing TikTok’s algorithm “bombards” teenagers with harmful content.

“It is the most addictive, it is the most dangerous and the one that needs to be dealt with most urgently.”

Source: BBC