In a new development, social media app TikTok has launched a new feature, ‘Family Pairing’, to give more authorities to the parents to control their children accounts. This is going to be a new pattern of keeping an eye on children’s accounts to monitor their activities.
In addition, TikTok will disable Direct Messages feature for users under the age of 16. This update goes live on April 30https://t.co/UEUsBs0dms
— Business Standard (@bsindia) April 17, 2020
While increasing parental controls, TikTok app allows parents to remotely set restrictions on their kids’ accounts through Family Pairing. The feature permits parents to link their own accounts with their children’s accounts.
The new feature will authorize parents to disable direct messages, turn on restricted content mode besides setting screen time limits without accessing the kids’ phone.
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The company introduced the latest feature after paying $5.7 million to the Federal Trade Commission over alleged violations of a children’s privacy law, in part for allowing users under 13 years old to sign up without parental consent, said a report published by The Verge.
Earlier in the year, TikTok rolled out the same features in Europe under the name of ‘Family Safety Mode’.
According to the report, parents will still have to get their kids to agree to have their accounts linked under the new system. To set it up, parents need to scan a QR code inside the digital wellbeing section of their kid’s account.
Kids will be able to disable the feature at any time, though there are some roadblocks: parents will receive a notification, and they’ll have a chance to re-link the account in case it was disconnected accidentally.
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Along with the new features, TikTok is also making another change today: It’s disabling direct messages for all users under 16. BuzzFeed News reported last year that the app had issues with predators messaging younger users.
Interestingly, a lawyer approached the Lahore High Court (LHC) to ban TikTok in Pakistan a few months ago. The lawyer argued that the Android-based social media video application, in Pakistan, is a source of vulgarity and pornography.
Keeping in view the overall social background and cultural discourse, the lawyer argued, it is imperative to ban the site. “TikTok is a great mischief of modern times. It is destroying the youth and promoting immoral activities,” stated Advocate Nadeem Sarwar in his petition.
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According to the petition, the application in question was created by a Chinese company and introduced in the overseas market last year. The application aims at helping people create and share videos on their accounts. Some videos go viral which, in the lawyer’s view, are a threat to social stability and moral order of Pakistani society. However, the court rejected the petition.