TikTok has tightened the privacy settings of tens of millions of children's accounts in a move aimed at restricting the way future groomers will communicate with them on the app.
The short form video app revealed on Wednesday that the accounts of all users under the age of 16 would revert to private, meaning that they will have to proactively accept any requests from other users to follow them.
The step often prevents other users from uploading videos under the age of 16, or from using them as part of the Duet and Stitch features, a vital part of the TikTok sharing model that encourages people to incorporate other videos into their own.
Another adjustment is that only users' friends aged 13 to 15 will vote on their videos. Users aged 16 to 18 will now be allowed to use their videos for Dueling and Stitching by default to friends only.
A TikTok spokesperson refused to say how much the move would affect, but TikTok has a significant percentage of younger users relative to other applications.
Although the proportion varies by region, the New York Times reported in August that more than a third of TikTok's 49 million daily users in the United States were 14 or younger.
"The privacy rights and online safety of our community is a top priority for TikTok, and we place a particular emphasis on the privacy and safety of our younger users, which is why we're making these significant changes," said Elaine Fox, Head of Privacy at TikTok in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The updates are the latest in the TikTok series planned to improve the protection of minors on the app.
"This is a bold package of measures by TikTok and a hugely welcome step that will reduce opportunities for groomers to contact children," said Andy Burrows, Head of Child Protection Internet Strategy at NSPCC, UK Children's Charity.The updates are the latest in the TikTok series planned to improve the protection of minors on the app.
"This is a bold package of measures by TikTok and a hugely welcome step that will reduce opportunities for groomers to contact children," said Andy Burrows, Head of Child Protection Internet Strategy at NSPCC, UK Children's Charity, to Business Insider.
"It comes as abusers are taking advantage of the pandemic to target children spending more time online and we urge other platforms to be similarly proactive rather than wait for regulation to come into effect."
However, Eva Fog Noer, a Danish child protection specialist who had previously consulted with TikTok to address child safety, doubted whether the reforms would be successful.
"Hindering the core functionalities, and prohibiting them and their parents the choice of being open or private, is not the way to go," she said.
"I fear how this move will affect the imaginative flow of people, young and old. It will also result in a lot of users generating new profiles with a false birthday, making it much worse.
Source :businessinsider.com