What you need to knowTikTok is preparing a new parental controls for teen screen time monitoring. Parents will soon have a customizable daily screen time limit for their teens. A new dashboard will be included showing total time spent on TikTok and how many times it was opened. Sleep reminders will also be arriving soon for all users.
As TikTok continues to encroach on the lives of many young adults, the platform is introducing new ways in which parents can help monitor their children and limit their app usage.
According to a press release from TikTok, in the coming weeks all accounts registered for a user under the age of 18 will be capped at one hour of screen time by default. The platform explains that a teen’s caregivers can adjust their daily screen time limit based on the day of the week or scenario (e.g. vacation). TikTok explains that while this one-hour limit is set automatically for users under the age of 13, a parent or guardian must enter a passcode to add an additional 30 minutes.
Additionally, parents will soon find a new Screen Time dashboard with this upcoming update. The dashboard provides information on how much screen time your child has been spending, how many times they have opened TikTok, and a breakdown of time spent during the day and night. The company cites a research study it conducted to offer parents as many tools as possible to guide their teens.
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(Credit: TikTok)(Credit: TikTok)(Credit: TikTok)
The final feature allows parents to set a time window to mute TikTok notifications on their teen’s phone. This builds on the already existing feature where accounts with registered users 13 to 15 mute their notifications at 9pm. 16 and 17 year olds will be automatically muted after 10pm.
These three new options are being added for parents in Family Pairing, a parental control hub that caretakers can use to better manage what’s happening with TikTok on their teen’s phone.
Aside from monitoring your teen, TikTok will add sleep reminders on the platform. Users will soon be able to schedule when it’s time to close TikTok and get a good night’s sleep. When the set time is reached during the night, a popup will appear alerting the user that it is time to close the app.
The upcoming new features, most notably the new customizable 60-minute limit, are powered by TikTok’s newfound approach to promoting healthier practices. The platform encourages teens to set the 60-minute limit themselves, especially if they spend more than 100 hours on the app. However, if a teenager refuses, a parent can always set a limit themselves through family linking.
TikTok’s new controls follow similar steps taken by competitor Instagram last year, introducing ways to restrict and monitor teens using the platform, particularly around Reels.
