TikTok has been trying to increase the safety of teenagers using the platform. Just two months ago the parental control options were improved and this Wednesday it announced an automatic and default improvement for the privacy of young users.
Firstly, the platform is substantially changing the default settings for all accounts registered by young users aged 13 to 15, all these profiles have been made private without distinction.
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This means only people authorized by that user will be able to view the videos. “We want our younger users to be able to make informed choices about what and with whom they choose to share, which includes whether they want to open their account to public views,” TikTok officials stated.
Tiktok is working on privacy settings for young users
The changes also affect comments, and again, users aged between 13 and 15 will now be able to choose who can leave comments on their posts. On the other hand, the Duo and Paste functions are restricted to those over 16. In addition, for those who are between 16 or 17 years old, these features will only be available to their friends by default. However, they will be able to change the settings.
Only those who are 16 or older will be able to allow their videos to be downloaded. Again, for those who are between 16 or 17, this option will be disabled by default.
Another feature of TikTok, which allows you to recommend your account to others, will be disabled by default for the accounts of those teenagers between 13 and 15 years old.
“By engaging them early in their privacy journey, we can enable them to make more deliberate decisions about their online privacy. Adjusting TikTok’s default account settings to support stronger user privacy is a meaningful step in our ongoing commitment to keeping our younger users safe,” says the ByteDance platform.