
TikTok to Add One-Hour Default Time Limit for Minors
By Movieguide® Contributor
TikTok announced on Wednesday that the social media platform would establish a default one-hour time limit for minors.
“Every account belonging to a user below age 18 will automatically be set to a 60-minute daily screen time limit,” TikTok’s statement said. “If the 60-minute limit is reached, teens will be prompted to enter a passcode in order to continue watching, requiring them to make an active decision to extend that time.”
While users will have the ability to opt out of the one-hour screen time limit, TikTok said they will prompt users to create screen time limits if they average more than 100 minutes on TikTok a day.
The new feature gives parents more control, and they can customize daily screen limits for their kids, including choosing different time limits for different days of the week.
Parents will also have access to a dashboard that includes summaries of time on the app, the number of times TikTok was opened and the ability to schedule muted notifications.
These screen-time changes come as lawmakers have put increased pressure on TikTok, banning the app from all government devices and suggesting the same should be done for the entire U.S. population.
Rep. Mike Gallagher called the social media site “digital fentanyl” last year due to its incredibly addictive properties. Teenagers spent an average of 99 minutes per day on TikTok in 2021, far outpacing time spent on YouTube and other social media platforms.
The version of TikTok available in China has had a 40-minute time limit in place for users under the age of 14 for two years in an effort to curb addictions.
Many also question teenagers’ safety on TikTok due to the algorithm’s tendency to show them harmful content such as sexual content or videos glorifying drugs and alcohol.
Movieguide® previously reported on TikTok’s safety issues:
In a recent article published in Forbes, writer Alexandra S. Levine highlighted how TikTok allows and encourages sexual abuse of minors, especially young girls.
The article titled “How TikTok Live Became ‘A Strip Club Filled With 15-Year-Olds’” outlined how TikTok users exploit young girls for sexual photos and videos in exchange for petty cash.
Levine notes that comments like “$35 for a flash,” and “I’m 68 and you owe me one,” are common requests from male users to female minors on the video-sharing platform.
“These exchanges did not take place between adults at a nightclub; they took place on TikTok Live, where MJ, who said she was 14 years old, was broadcasting with friends to 2,000 strangers on a recent Saturday night,” Levine wrote.
TikTok boomed over the COVID-19 pandemic, jumping from 381M users in 2019 to over 700M in 2020.
According to Wallaroo Statistics, the platform has over 1 billion users as of April 2022.
Leah Plunkett, an assistant dean at Harvard Law School and faculty associate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, called TikTok “the digital equivalent of going down the street to a strip club filled with 15-year-olds,” referencing users’ digital gifts which receivers can turn into cash.
Despite their rules of not allowing any user under the age of 18 to receive or send gifts, the company recently faced lawsuits over their sexually exploitive content and business model.