After a large wave of criticism and warnings about the danger of some of its content to young children, the “Tik Tok” application launched two features that allow parents to control their children’s accounts, in terms of reducing the appearance of adult content in front of them.
With the first feature, parents can set up a blacklist of phrases, words and hashtags that are inappropriate for children, while the other allows them to curb the flow of videos to reduce the chances of harmful content appearing.
Social media expert Mohammed Al-Harthy says that the two features came “in response to the criticism leveled by consumer protection organizations against the Tik Tok application due to the appearance of inappropriate content in front of teenagers.”
In his speech to “Sky News Arabia”, the expert adds that the new step is gaining importance by referring to the system on which “Tik Tok” is based, which is automated operation without user intervention.
The Chinese app has long been criticized on this point. In February, the European Consumer Organization BEUC filed a complaint with the European Union, saying that “Tik Tok failed to protect children and adolescents from exposure to hidden advertisements and harmful content.”
“Tik Tok” responded to the pressure, and deleted more than 102 million videos during the first quarter of this year, because it violated “community guidelines,” as the company described, pointing to new schemes for the activity of fake accounts and fake posts.
Trust and win
Al-Harthy expects this important step to increase users’ confidence in the application, and “may raise its ratings among other applications competing for the public, and thus increase its profits in the future.”
The “Tik Tok” application had recently introduced a feature that helps users reduce the time they spend daily browsing its platform.
Al-Harthy believes that the new features launched by “Tik Tok” recently, will constitute “a better awareness of positive digital habits, and will help support digital well-being.”