TikTok has pushed a new safety update in November to its app that allows parents to take more control of their teenager's accounts, as social media companies come under increasing pressure to make their platforms safer for children.
The company said Tuesday that its "Family Pairing" feature now enables parents to turn off comments on their children's videos entirely or to limit them to friends only. Parents whose accounts are linked to their kids will also be able to set their accounts to private, turn off the search function for content, users or sounds, and limit who can see which videos their children have liked.
Launched (发布) in March, the Family Pairing tool lets parents see how long their children are spending on TikTok each day and limit the content they can see.
TikTok allows children to register and create an account if they're over the age of 13. All they need to do is provide their date of birth. However, because TikTok doesn't require registers to prove their identities, some children under 13 have registered by lying about their age，according to U. K. regulator Ofcom (英国通讯管理局).
Sarah, head of child safety public policy for TikTok in Europe, told CNBC that Family Pairing has "put itself in parents' shoes" since it was launched.
"If we're thinking about it as a toolbox, we wanted to offer more tools," she said on a video call ahead of the announcement.
