TikTok today becomes the latest tech company to roll out increased protections for minors on its platform in the wake of increased regulatory scrutiny. The company says it will introduce a series of product changes for teen users aged 13 to 17, aimed at making their TikTok experience more private, safer and less addictive. TikTok’s news follows similar moves recently announced by other tech companies catering to teens, including Google and YouTube, as well as Instagram.
The changes TikTok plans to roll out over the coming months will address in-app messaging, the public nature of users’ videos, the default download settings for videos and TikTok’s use of push notifications.
This expands on the changes to privacy settings and defaults for users under the age of 18 that TikTok introduced in January. At the time, TikTok debuted stricter rules for teens aged 13 to 15 and slightly more permissive settings for users 16 to 17 focused on default account types, commenting and the use of TikTok’s interactive features, like Stitch and Duet.
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