If you remember about the time when you were kid every move and every behavior were under surveillance of your parents, this time Tiktok is reminiscing 'that time when we were young' and applying it to their new policy. Now, for those kids who are on Tiktok, better be ready because the parents are watching everything on Tiktok.
Sited from Techcrunch, a feature called "Family Safety Mode", parents have the right to give limit for the children when they are playing Tiktok. This feature includes; screen time management controls, limits on direct messages, and restricted mode.
To use it, parents have to create an account first, and then link it to their kids' account. After it's enabled, parents are able to see how long they are into Tiktok, turn on the limit of whom their kids can DM , and mark restricted contents to avoid their kids accessing immoral contents.
In Addition to this policy, Tiktok collaborated with Tiktok Influencers to spread awareness about screen time management. The influencers will create a PSA (public service announcement) videos to remind the users not to play too much on Tiktok.
This policy is launched by Tiktok UK to support European Law about child protection. This is a good move for Tiktok to prevent any violation against the children on Tiktok. As parents, it's their duty to keep their children safe everythere.
On the other hand, this policy is still doubted because the kids would likely to prevent their parents to control them. The kids also have the authority over their account; they can unlink their account to the parents and decided to be private so the parents can't see them. Neither the parents can access what's inside their kids' account. It feels like this policy is just barking to the children but never biting them.Â
Besides, the 'family safety mode' feature is a repackaged feature of their old policy. The kids themselves can limit their direct messages, comments, and they can filter by themselves to choose contents they want to see.
Nevertheless, Tiktok has a contribution to create safe place on Internet for everyone, especially the kids who are still vulnerable and easy to be targeted by evils. If this policy really means to protect the children, there are still holes to be filled so this policy can be implemented fully without doubt. Hopefully other social platforms will do the same in the future.
So what do you think about this policy? Is it enough for the parents to keep their children safe on Tiktok? Let us know by commenting your thoughts below.
