TikTok rolled out family safety mode and screen time management features for its platform in February in an effort to help parents control their kids" activities on the video-sharing app. Those tools were initially made available in the U.K. followed by their European release, and today they"re reaching more users.
TikTok announced today the global launch of those parental controls plus a few more capabilities under the collective feature called Family Pairing. The new feature is meant to let parents customize their safety settings and those of their children based on what suits each family member.
There"s screen time management to limit how long kids use TikTok every day, plus a few videos from partner creators that automatically appear to remind users to take a break from the app. The "Restricted Mode" tool also prevents inappropriate content from showing up on the app, and "Direct Messages" allows parents to limit who can message their children or entirely remove the messaging capability for them. Moreover, users aged below 16 won"t be able to use direct messaging starting on April 30.
Family Pairing will go live in the next few weeks worldwide. To use the feature, parents must link their kids" accounts to theirs.