More than ever, families are turning to internet platforms like TikTok to stay entertained, informed, and connected. That was, of course, happening before COVID-19, but it has only accelerated since the outbreak began and social distancing brought families closer together.
The embrace of platforms like this is providing families with joint tools to express their creativity, share their stories, and show support for their communities. At the same time, they are often learning to navigate the digital landscape together and focused on ensuring a safe experience.
Today, TikTok is advancing its commitment to building for the safety of its users by introducing the family pairing feature, which allows parents and teens to customise their safety settings based on individual needs. Family Pairing enhances TikTok’s suite of safety tools and complements its work to provide greater access to product features as users reach key milestones for digital literacy. It is part of TikTok’s continued work toward providing parents with a better ability to guide their teen’s online experience while allowing time to educate about online safety and digital citizenship.
Family Pairing, which will be rolling out over the coming weeks, will allow a parent to link their TikTok account to their teens and set controls including screen time management, restricted mode, and direct messaging.
User safety is becoming a major priority for app developers, as the number of users on various applications has increased within the past few weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic. Starting April 30th, TikTok will be taking those protections one step further as relates to younger members of its community, and automatically disabling Direct Messages for registered accounts under the age of 16.
Many users start their creator journey at 13 and are introduced to a wider array of app options for download, making it a critical time for teens and their families to learn about digital literacy and smart online behavior.
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