Following a barrage of bad press related to the negative effect experts say social media is having on young people, China-owned TikTok announced Wednesday it’s introducing screen time limits for its youngest users.
“In the coming weeks, every account belonging to a user below age 18 will automatically be set to a 60-minute daily screen time limit,” a company press release explained.
The company says it “consulted the current academic research and experts from the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital in choosing this limit.”
It continues, “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.”
For those under 13, “a parent or guardian will need to set or enter an existing passcode to enable 30 minutes of additional watch time.”
In December, an NGO report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate claimed TikTok’s algorithm targets “vulnerable teens” and recommends “harmful” content to them, sometimes as rapidly as every 27 to 39 seconds.
The CEO of the organization called it “every parent’s nightmare,” as topics like eating disorders, weight-shaming, self-harm and sexual assault were among the “harmful” content at kids’ fingertips.
For its part, TikTok continues, “Research also shows that being more aware of how we spend our time can help us be more intentional about the decisions we make.”
Surveys have shown young people can spend up to eight hours a day on social media. The House Foreign Affairs Committee is weighing a measure that would grant President Joe Biden new authority to ban TikTok, which has 100 million users.