TikTok Now Lets Parents Set Screen Time Limits For Their Kids And More

TikTok is adding a new feature that will give parents more ways to protect their children from what they are doing online via the platform.

The feature, called Family Pairing, allows parents and their children to customize their safety settings according to their individual needs. The ByteDance-owned company said the new feature comes as “part of our continued work toward providing parents better ability to guide their teen's online experience while allowing time to educate about online safety and digital citizenship.”

TikTok noted that due to the COVID-19 outbreak, families are now learning to use its platform, along with others like Facebook, to “express their creativity, share their stories, and show support for their communities.” These parents and children are also, per the company, learning to navigate the digital landscape these platforms bring.

The company noted that many users start using the app at age 13. Because of this, teens and their parents should learn about how to stay safe in the digital world. Family Pairing gives parents a way to do this when their children are using TikTok.

Family Pairing will allow parents to link their kids' accounts to theirs so they can take advantage of the following features:

• Screen Time Management

This feature allows parents to set the amount of time their kids are allowed to spend on TikTok each day. This will help parents prevent their kids from spending all day on the app.

• Restricted Mode

This feature will allow parents to restrict what their kids can view on the app. It limits the content that will be shown to their children.

• Direct Messages

This feature will allow parents to either restrict who will be able to send a direct message to their kids via the app, or turn direct messaging off completely so that their children will not be able to send and receive messsages to and from anybody on the app.

The Verge noted that Family Pairing's features aren't exactly new. Screen Time Limit, for example, was already in place before Family Pairing was released. The new feature simply makes it easier to set limits.

TikTok said Family Pairing will be rolling out “over the coming weeks.” It added that by April 30, all TikTok users under the age of 16 will have Direct Messaging automatically disabled for their accounts.