Short video sharing platform TikTok has banned all persons under age 16 from using its private messaging feature. The change means that under 16s will only be allowed to continue posting videos publicly, and even comment on videos.
The age restriction will be based on the birth date added to the account during account creation which the company doesn’t have any follow-up procedures to prove if it’s true.
Affected users will be notified about the change directly via in-app notifications, says TikTok. However, the under-16s will still get a grace period from today through April 30, when the private messaging feature will be disabled completely globally. The move is for the safety of the teenagers who use the platform every single day from being taken advantage of.
The move is bold considering teenagers account for most of TikTok’s fanbase.
As per Statista, the latest data about TikTok usage shows that teens aged between 10 to 19 years are the most popular age group accounting for 37.2 percent of all active user accounts in the United States, as of January 2020.
TikTok’s latest feature, Family Sharing, allows parents to link their personal accounts with their teen’s TikTok account making it easy for them to watch over their online activity.
TikTok’s Family Sharing feature has several aggregated controls that can be set including Screen Time Management, content filtering, plus being able to manage direct messages by either limiting who can send direct messages to their teens or turning the feature off totally. But the latter won’t be necessary after April 30.
“We believe these options promote a safer and more trustworthy experience for our users of all ages, but our progress in this area is also never finished,” the company said in a statement.
