TikTok Is Adding Parental Controls Because It's Getting Too Popular With Kids

Due to its popularity with younger users, TikTok is introducing parental controls that allow parents to set how much time their kids can spend on the app.

TikTok is a teen’s favorite, so the company behind it understands the responsibility it has to limit access to its app. Kids and teens are spending so much time on TikTok that it has decided to hand over control to parents, giving them the ability to choose the amount of time their kids can spend on it.

The parental controls are accessible via the new Family Safety Mode, according to a recent blog post from Cormac Keenan, TikTok’s EMEA Head of Trust and Safety. As explains, the goal is to encourage people to develop “a healthy relationship with online apps and services.”

The ability to control the time spent on the app is only one of the new initiatives that people may see pop up on their timeline. TikTok has also teamed up with some of its most influential personalities to create and share videos that remind people to get off the app. It seems these videos only appear after a user has spent a certain amount of time watching videos non-stop. If you don’t have the Family Safety Mode activated, you can still scroll past these videos.

If parental controls are enabled, however, you will not be able to continue using the app.

Victim of its success among kids, @tiktok is now releasing a new Familty Safety Mode to hand back control to their parents.

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“We will keep introducing ways to keep our community safe so they can stay focused on what matters to them — creating, sharing, and enjoying the creativity of TikTok’s community,” explains Keenan.

Parents will also be able to restrict who can send direct messages and/or turn off DMs completely, as well as control the type of content that can be seen on the feed.

Family Safety Mode is currently available in the UK, but it will roll out to other markets in the coming weeks.