TikTok shows youth safety tools

In a chat with journalists and specialists who assist children and adolescents, the TikTok Brazil showed its tools to help children and adolescents to have better mental health. The company focused a lot on Family Sync, which allows guardians to control what a teenager aged 13 to 17 watches as well as who interacts with them. See all the details right now.

age gap

O TikTok knows the impact it can have on the lives of younger people and the main rule is that, to have an account to call yours, you must be at least 13 years old. Age verification is done by entering the date of birth on the account creation screen (the message is not informed on this screen) and, if it is not within the rule, the account will not even be created.

O TikTok recommends that the creation of an account on the social network be done alongside the parents and not happen before the indicated age. Fernando Gallo, public policy leader at TikTok Brasil, stressed that it is important that this follow-up happens from the first moment and that accounts for those aged between 13 and 16 have special limitations that provide better control for parents/guardians.

The executive also recalls that content removal is one of the pillars of the social network and 90% of videos that should not even have been posted are removed in less than 24 hours. Fernando also remember that this content does not have more than one view and, in some cases, it is not delivered to users.

Keeping people safe in the digital realm is our priority.

Fernando Gallo, public policy leader at TikTok Brasil

Between April 2023 and March 2023, 74,4 million accounts were removed globally that did not meet the age rules. And it is worth remembering that user accounts aged 13 to 15 have different settings that allow greater parental control. And only people over the age of 18 can live stream on TikTok.

TikTok Family Sync

Launched in 2019, the tool works as a parental control on the short video social network. It allows a minor's account to be registered in the responsible person's central and it is possible to manage the visibility (whether it will be private or public) and adjust other content and privacy settings. See what you can do:

• Comments: restrict who can comment on videos;
• Direct messages: restrict who can send messages to the account;
• daily screen limit: it is possible to define the time spent inside the app. The social network recalls that user accounts under 18 have an automatic daily limit of 60 minutes.
• search settings: restrict the content search so that even if the teenager tries to search for inappropriate videos, nothing is displayed.

All the rules defined by those responsible can be seen by the teenagers and another interesting resource is called silent notifications, which allows notifications not to be sent to the account owner.

To activate the feature and have greater parental control, see the step by step below:

Step 1: Open the TikTok app on your smartphone. Then in the section Profile, click the three-stripe menu and select Settings and Privacy.

Step 2: scroll and look for family sync. Click continue afterwards.

Step 3: how you want to register an account, click Father mother and then in Advance.

Now, just connect the teen's account. This can be done via QR Code or by sending a direct link to the minor. Once that's done, you can now control everything the younger person watches and who interacts with the minor.

privacy standard

By default, those aged between 13 and 15 no longer receive notifications after 21 pm. That goes up to 22pm for 16-17 year olds, but everything can be customized in the family sync hub. In addition, the TikTok reminds you that users aged 13 to 16 are not allowed to send or receive direct messages.

Another rule is that Video Download, Stitch or Duet are not available for those under 16 years old. Accounts for 13-15 year olds are set to private by default, which means that only approved users can watch videos that have already been posted.

Finally, if you are 16-17 years old and create an account, the message senders setting is automatically set to “Nobody” by default. And the privacy of videos posted by 13- to 15-year-olds must be changed as soon as they put their first content on the social network.

Resources for Teens

The final item mentioned in the event of the TikTok emphasized the Youth Portal, online website designed for anyone under 18 who would like to become aware of the social network. There are tips for everyone to feel safer online and for everyone to have a good user experience.

Furthermore, the Youth Portal arrives to show, in a simplified way, how the social network uses, treats and stores the data of everyone who posts, watches and comments on the videos.

O TikTok also works with leading industry experts, non-governmental organizations and associations around the world, including Safer Net, Instituto DimiCuida, ConnectSafely and Technology Coalition, to ensure that policies and tools continue to promote a safer and more welcoming environment for the community.

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reviewed by Glaucon Vital in 18 / 8 / 23.