Social media platform TikTok has announced that every user under 18 will automatically be set to a one-hour daily screen time limit. In a release, the video sharing app said that these changes will help teenagers manage their time on TikTok. This is one of the most aggressive moves by a social media company to prevent teens from endlessly scrolling. It comes amid growing calls for 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 changes being implemented, 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 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.
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.
For those below the age of 13, the daily screen time will be set to 60 minutes and once the limit is exhausted, parents will be required to enter passcode ''to enable 30 minutes of additional watch time''.
TikTok and other social media platforms have been facing questions for years on the impact they have on young users. Then there are also concerns over its ties to China through parent company Bytedance.
TikTok's move comes after other social media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat rolled out additional parental controls and other features to limit the screen time of young users.
