What you need to know
- TikTok has new privacy changes for teens on its platforms.
- Direct Messaging will now be turned off by default.
- It will also let users decide who can see their videos.
TikTok has announced new privacy changes for teens on its platforms to help keep them safe.
The video giant announced that it is rolling out changes globally over the coming months "to ensure even stronger proactive protections to help keep teens safe."
TikTok says that going forward, 16-17-year-olds will have their Direct Messaging setting set to 'No one' by default, which means to send messages they'll have to manually enable the feature. Accounts that haven't used DMs before will get a prompt to review and confirm their privacy settings.
TikTok is also changing settings around who can see your videos:
The process of making a TikTok is fun and creative – choosing music, picking effects, and getting the transitions right – but it is just as important to choose who that video will be shared with. To help teens understand the sharing options available to them we're now adding a pop-up that appears when teens under the age of 16 are ready to publish their first video, asking them to choose who can watch the video. They won't be able to publish their video until they make a selection.
New context around downloading public videos for 16-17-year-olds will also give them more information about letting people download videos they post. These are already permanently disabled for under 16s.
Finally, TikTok is changing when younger teens can receive push notifications:
Now, we'll be drawing upon this research to make changes that reduce the time period during which our younger teens can receive push notifications. Accounts aged 13-15 will not receive push notifications from 9pm, and accounts aged 16-17 will have push notifications disabled starting at 10pm.
You can read about the full raft of changes here.
