TikTok’s Youth Council: Designing a Safer Space on TikTok

Despite age restrictions, more and more younger teens are joining social media. Give them a smartphone, and they won’t be able to resist the allure of instant connections and content accessibility. TikTok recognizes the need to design a safe space for its younger users. With TikTok’s Youth Council, the platform also recognizes these users’ invaluable input regarding their own well-being. 

Here’s what we know so far about TikTok’s latest safety features and measures.

What Is TikTok’s Youth Council?

TikTok’s Youth Council is the platform’s latest “initiative that further strengthens how we build our app to be safe for teens by design.” 

While designing this safe space, TikTok also carefully considers the input and experiences of teens and their families. 

TikTok first announced this new initiative in June of 2023, and it was officially launched in March of this year. One of the Youth Council’s primary purposes is to seek the perspectives of users that the council is meant to protect. 

Partnering with online safety agency Praesidio Safeguarding, TikTok aims to create a safe space for teens with solutions they help formulate. 

Praesidio Safeguarding members include 15 teens aged between 15 and 18 from various communities and countries. Representative countries include the US, UK, Brazil, Indonesia, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, and Morocco. 

The Council’s priorities for 2024 include “a focus on teen well-being and inclusion.” They want to “ensure TikTok continues to be a safe and accessible space for young people to show up as who they are.” 

In the coming months, the Council will launch media literacy initiatives in the US. These informational efforts will focus on misinformation, AI-generated content, and more.

TikTok’s User Safety Tools for Minors

TikTok’s Family Pairing feature is the platform’s primary safeguard for minors. The feature allows parents to link their TikTok account to their teen’s and customize their settings to ensure a safer experience. 

Parents can set various parental controls to manage their children’s content exposure, connections, screen time, privacy settings, etc. 

Here’s a quick guide on TikTok’s Family Pairing parental control options. 

Daily Screen Time

Parents can decide how long their teen spends on TikTok every day. TikTok accounts of minors aged 13 to 17 have a default daily screen time limit of one hour. 

Parents can access a screen time dashboard, which summarizes their teen’s TikTok screen time. 

Parents also have the option to:

• Set their teen’s screen time directly from their TikTok account. 
• Set a single TikTok screen time limit across all of their teen’s devices. 
• Set a passcode their teen must enter to keep using TikTok after they reach their daily screen time.

Mute Push Notifications

TikTok Push Notifications are app notifications that TikTok sends directly to your device when you’re away from the platform. 

• Push notifications are turned off between 9 PM and 8 AM by default for teens between 13 and 15 years old. 
• Push notifications are turned off between 10 PM and 8 AM by default for teens between 16 and 17 years old.
• Parents can modify the hours when push notifications are on mute on their teens’ devices directly from their own accounts. However, they can only add hours to the default times above; they can’t shorten them. 

Filter Keywords

Parents can specify keywords or hashtags they want to filter from their teens’ For You and Following feed recommendations. This means that videos containing these keywords or hashtags won’t show up on their kids’ feeds. 

Restricted Mode

Enable Restricted Mode for a teen’s account to limit exposure to inappropriate or unsuitable content. Parents can report any content that appears on their teens’ feeds while on Restricted Mode. 

Search and Discoverability

Parents can decide if their teen can perform TikTok searches for videos, LIVE streams, or hashtags. They can also choose whether their teen can have a private or public account. 

Parents can turn off the Suggest account to others setting on their child’s account so that TikTok won’t suggest their account to others.

Direct Messages

Direct messaging on TikTok is only available to registered accounts of users aged 16 and older. This means the user’s registered birth date on TikTok indicates they’re 16 or older. 

Users whose birth dates indicate they’re between 13 and 15 years old have no access to direct messaging on TikTok. 

Parents whose children have direct messaging access can restrict who can send them DMs or turn off direct messaging. 

Liked Videos and Comments

Parents can manage their teens’ privacy settings and choose who can view their liked videos. Parents of teens can also select who can comment on their videos. 

How To Set Up Family Pairing

Family Pairing requires a parent to link their account to their teen’s account. Here’s how to do it:

1. Go to your Profile and tap the three-line icon in the upper right. 
2. Select Settings and privacy. 
3. Under Content & Display, select Family Pairing. 
4. Tap Parent or Teen (select if the account setting up Family Pairing is the parent or teen). 
5. Follow the steps to finish linking your accounts. 

Family Pairing is only available on the TikTok mobile app. If a teen accesses TikTok via a mobile or desktop browser, the TikTok parental controls parents already set via the app won’t apply. 

They can, however, use the parental controls available on the device and the mobile or desktop browser. 

Follow TikTok’s Footsteps Towards Promoting Safety for Everyone

TikTok’s popularity has expanded beyond Gen Z-ers and younger Millennials since its launch in 2017. 

However, the platform has always appealed to the younger demographic, especially kids between 13 and 17 years old. 

And TikTok has always recognized its obligation to keep minors safe from the dangers of social media. 

Creators also share this obligation. Use the Audience controls feature to limit your audience to those 18 and older whenever necessary. 

Proactively report content and accounts that may harm users, especially kids. TikTok also encourages everyone to report minor profiles with unrestricted content access. 

TikTok’s Youth Council is just one of the platform’s many efforts to promote safety for its younger users. Simple adherence to TikTok’s Community Guidelines is one of the best ways to follow its footsteps in promoting a safe space for everyone. Focusing your targeting strategy toward the most suitable audiences is another.

Sign up for a High Social plan to ensure your content always targets the right viewers. High Social’s advanced, proprietary AI solution perfectly complements TikTok’s algorithm. 

You can rest assured that you’re connecting with audiences whose demographic and interests match your community well. Start growing your TikTok today!

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