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TikTok introduces new safety features for under 18 users

TikTok has announced a series of safety features for under 18 users of the social media platform.

The news comes after earlier this week both YouTube and Instagram announced changes to respective policies designed to increase user safety.

A key change is a pop-up for users aged 16 to 17 asking the user to confirm the choice to make their videos able to be downloaded. Downloads are permanently disabled for users under the age of 16.

The pop-up asking the user to confirm the choice to enable downloads

Duet and Stitch features on TikTok which allow a user to video reply to another user’s video, is also disabled on under 16 accounts.

Another of the changes is that the default Direct Messaging (DM) settings for a user aged 16 to 17 will be set to “no one”, although this may be changed by the user later.

When a user under the age of 16 posts their first video, there will now be a pop-up asking the user who they would like to view their video: followers, friends, or only the user themselves.

The choice to decide who can view the video

TikTok will also no longer send push notifications to users aged between 13 to 15 after 9pm, and for users aged 16 to 17 notifications will not be sent after 10pm.

In January 2021, TikTok made all accounts belonging to children under the age of 16 private by default.

Users on TikTok must be above the age of 13 to use the platform.

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