TikTok Launches Parental Control Tool as Scrutiny Grows in US, EU, and Canada

As scrutiny of the popular short-form video app TikTok continues to grow in the US, EU, and Canada due to security concerns, the company has announced that it is developing a new parental control tool designed to help parents limit their teens from accessing inappropriate content. The announcement comes amid mounting pressure on the Chinese tech giant ByteDance, which owns TikTok.

The new parental control feature will allow parents to restrict what words or hashtags can be accessed by their children on TikTok. To design this feature effectively, TikTok says it will be consulting with parenting, youth, and civil society organizations. This feature is still in its early stages of development but marks a significant step forward for the app as it seeks to restore trust with its users worldwide.

In addition to launching this parental control tool, TikTok has also introduced other features aimed at helping teenagers manage how long they spend using the app each day. Accounts belonging to those under 18 will automatically have a one-hour time limit per day imposed upon them. Any user who wishes to exceed this time must enter a passcode before continuing to use the service.

Overall these changes are positive steps taken by Tiktok towards increasing safety for its younger users while also restoring trust among governments and stakeholders worldwide who have expressed concerns over data privacy issues related to ByteDance's ownership of the platform. While more needs still need to be done in safeguarding user data security going forward, these moves should go some way towards alleviating fears about the appropriate usage of Tiktok among teens worldwide.