ARIt comes as no surprise that with the January 2021 lockdown restrictions coming into force, more and more people will be spending time online. Young people in particular will be turning to social media even more as a result of the schools having to change their usual practice. With the increased activity, it’s important to be aware of the impact that lockdown can have throughout this time not just on ourselves but for children as well. Our report Covid-19: Expectations and Effects on Children Online highlighted the trends that were seen throughout the initial lockdown period in 2020 with abusers shown to take advantage of more young people throughout times like this.
With privacy features being so important for the new year, TikTok have updated their security settings to work towards helping young people stay safe whilst using the online platform.
TikTok – New Features For Under 16s
The main change that has come with this new update is that users who are under 16 now have their accounts automatically set to private which only allows approved followers to view and comment on video content. As users need to be 13 to access TikTok, this setting will be applied for those aged 13-15. As well as this, users on TikTok will not be able to download any videos from those under the age of 16 whilst the ‘Suggest your account’ option has also been disabled.
TikTok – New Features For 16-17 Year Olds
As well as the changes made for under 16s, TikTok has also updated the privacy settings for 16-17 year olds particularly with the ‘Duet’ and ‘Stitch’ settings. This feature allows a user to record and play it alongside another recording. Those aged 16-17 will now be only able to duet with their chosen friends by default setting whilst under 16s content will not be available for duet by users.
TikTok Social Media Checklist
These changes are important steps forward in trying to make social media platforms safe areas for young people. If you want to know what other safety measures and privacy features TikTok has in place then don’t forget to download our free social media checklist.
