Parents, here's a way to limit your child's use of TikTok

In today's digital age, it can be tough to regulate your child's screen time, especially when it comes to apps like TikTok. However, with a new time limit feature, parents can now restrict their child's usage of the app. In this article, we explore how to use this new feature and the benefits it can bring.

There's no way around it — our kids are going to learn about social media and Tiktok at some point. If you cannot stop your child from using it, you might as well make sure they are not spending all of their time on the app. 

This is where the new time limit for minors on Tiktok comes in.

Tiktok time limit for minors

Because of growing concerns from parents and child experts on the impact of social media to children's mental health, content platform giant TikTok announced its newest feature last March 1. It's all about setting a 60-minute time limit on screen time for users under 18 and adding some new parental controls.

"We're improving our screen time tool with more custom options, introducing new default settings for teen accounts, and expanding Family Pairing with more parental controls," wrote Cormac Keenan, Head of Trust and Safety of TikTok.

According to Keenan, this new change aims to help teens manage their time on the app. 

If it's the first time you're hearing it (you're not alone), here's the gist of the new feature:

• Every account belonging to a user below the age of 18 will automatically be set to a 60-minute daily screen time limit. If the 60-minute limit is reached, teens will be prompted to enter a passcode in order to continue watching, requiring them to make an active decision to extend that time. 
• For users under the age of 13, the daily screen time limit will also be set to 60 minutes, and a parent or guardian will need to set or enter an existing passcode to enable 30 minutes of additional watch time.
• Moreover, teens can also opt out of the 60-minute default screen limit and set a daily screen time limit for themselves. But they will be notified if they spend more than 100 minutes on TikTok a day, and forced to set their own limits — which they can also bypass using their code. 

• Parents of Tiktok users below 13 years old can set a passcode to prevent their child from changing the time limit.
• If you're not yet aware of Family Pairing on Tiktok, take this as a sign to look into it right now and maximise the added features, such as the screen time dashboard, which allows parents to see the number of times the app was opened, and a breakdown of total time spent during the day and night.
• If you're linked to your teen's account through Family Pairing, you can also customise the daily screen time limit for your teen — including choosing different time limits depending on the day of the week.
• Worried about how endless scrolling on the app can affect your child's bedtime? They also added the sleep reminder to help people plan when they want to be offline at night. You can set your (or your child's) bedtime, and when it's reached, a pop-up will remind you when it's time to log off.

How will the TikTok time limit affect your teen?

Let's be real. As a parent, I think these changes to TikTok's screen time limit for kids and teenagers are not foolproof. Our teens can just easily bypass the default screen time limit that was set for them.

However, the app's move to limit screen time and prompt the user to make healthy choices (like putting down the cell phone) is a great first step.

Moreover, it opens up the conversation between us parents and our children about the potential risks and benefits of using social media. We can talk to them about what we think the acceptable (and age-appropriate) screen time is and how often they should be using Tiktok or other social media apps.

At the same time, they can also make their case on what works with their schedule and we can come up with a reasonable agreement. For me, this new feature can help empower our kids to make good decisions about how they want to spend their time on social media.

We have a long way to go when it comes to navigating this new technology-driven world our kids were born into. And truth be told, we can try to keep up all we can, but new tech will always be a few steps ahead of us. 

But as parents, I think it is our job to keep an open mind about the new trends and learn alongside our children and keep the communication lines open between us so we will know how we can keep them safe, happy and prepared for this long road ahead of us. 

ALSO READ: TikTok imposing 60-minute time limit on teens to prevent binges

This article was first published in theAsianparent.