TikTok To Set 60 Minute Daily Screen Time Limit for Users Under 18 Years

TikTok, the social media platform, has announced that its users below 18 years of age will now be set to a one-hour daily screen time limit.

New Delhi: TikTok, the social media platform, has announced that its users below 18 years of age will now be set to a one-hour daily screen time limit. According to the company, the new changes will help teenagers manage their time on TikTok. The decision comes amid growing calls for a ban on the app across the world. While Canada has banned TikTok on government devices, the United States and European Union have also directed staff to enforce such a ban.

According to the company, if the 60-minute limit is reached, users will be prompted to enter a passcode — requiring them to make an active decision to extend their time spent swiping through videos on the app.

Cormac Keenan, TikTok’s head of trust and safety, has informed that the video-sharing app consulted researchers and experts from the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital when deciding the time limits to set for teen users.

”While there’s no collectively-endorsed position on the ‘right’ amount of screen time or even the impact of screen time more broadly, we consulted the current academic research and experts from the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital in choosing this limit,” Cormac Keenan, TikTok’s Head of Trust and Safety, said in a statement published on company’s website.

Keenan added that if a teen decides to turn off this new default limit and spends more than 100 minutes on TikTok a day, they will be prompted to set a daily screen time limit for themselves. “In our first month of testing, this approach increased the use of our screen time management tools by 234%,” Keenan wrote.

CNN said the new feature will roll out in the coming weeks, but added that there will be an option for teenage TikTok users to turn off the new default setting.

The social media platforms have been facing serious heat for years on the impact they have on young users. Then there are also concerns over its ties to China through parent company Bytedance.

To recall, social media giant like Instagram and Snapchat have already rolled out additional parental controls and other features to limit the screen time of young users.