Amid criticism, TikTok presents new measures to protect minors

During the hearing of the TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chewbefore the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the United States House of Representatives, legislators questioned the executive about the impact of the platform on minors.

In this regard, Edgar Rodríguez, director of public affairs for TikTok Latin America, stressed that it is a platform for people over 13 years of age and accounts are deleted when it is suspected that they are owned by a user under this age.

Although Chew expressed doubts to answer the measures that the platform executes to care for minors, Rodríguez stressed that it already has new default settings based on age.

For example, for people between the ages of 13 and 15, the accounts are private, so no one who is not a follower can see their content. The account is also not recommended to unknown users and no videos can be downloaded or duets, while only friends can comment on the videos.

The experts highlighted that there are other forms of protection that apply to all users, such as message control (as it is not a social network, photos cannot be sent), family synchronization, comment filters (to avoid abuse through specific words), restrict direct messages and block accounts.

Parents should take responsibility for their children online

Reyna highlighted that although the platform has a responsibility regarding content moderation, parents must also assume a deeper relationship with their children without fear or prejudice to encourage responsible use of technology.

Despite the fact that TikTok has a limit of 60 minutes for minor accounts, from the settings menu it is also possible to make changes to this period to make it shorter or longer. Likewise, this option also delivers weekly reports of the time on the screen to determine if the time using the app is not too much and even from this option you can send notifications regarding bedtime.

Viral challenges, a latent problem on TikTok

At the TikTok hearing, the proliferation of dangerous viral challenges was a contentious issue for Chew, but Rodríguez stressed that these dangerous activities are prohibited and you can’t invite other users to do them either.

He also distanced himself saying that they have not found evidence that they are on TikTok and their proliferation is part of a “snowball”, where the media participate.

“Normally,” he said, “we have very well identified that adults find out through traditional media and not through the platform. We started talking about the challenge and generated more interest in adolescents to do it, ”she explained.

On the other hand, he highlighted a series of recommendations on what to do if a user encounters a viral challenge:

• Stop to think about what you saw and how it makes you feel.
• Think about how risky it is. If it is not clear, look for more reliable information.
• Decide responsibly and don’t put yourself at risk.
• Take action by reporting dangerous challenges and don’t share them.

Daniela Calvillo, coordinator of the Te Protejo México Foundation, highlighted the importance of parents knowing the digital world of adolescents, since the dangerous ones are as real as in the physical world and must be understood to build trust.

In this sense, he highlighted that only one in 10 adolescents talks with their parents about the abuses they experience online. The reasons why they don’t do it is due to the fear of being punished.