TikTok Announces Privacy Update For Teen Users

TikTok Application (Photo by Olivier Bergeron on Unsplash)

Jakarta - The Head of Security for TikTok United States (US) TikTok, Eric Han, said that his party had issued an application update. Later, each teen's account will be made more private.

Eric explained that this update applies to users aged 13 to 15 years. As a result, these accounts will receive comment restrictions from other accounts and appear in the search menu.

"Only accounts that have been added as friends can view uploaded videos, and their accounts will not be suggested to other users," said Eric Han through an official release that was distributed yesterday, Wednesday, January 13.

In addition, the Duet and Stitch features, which allow users to re-upload or respond to other users' videos, will be disabled for users under the age of 16. Another addition, TikTok users cannot download videos uploaded by accounts under 16 years of age.

"Duet and Stitch can only apply to registered friends," wrote Eric.

Through the update from the application developed by Bytedance, teenage users can still use the service. It's just that with extra protection for users and uploaded videos from the wider community.

Continued Efforts to Increase Security

This security upgrade update is not the first time. Slowly, TikTok has continued to add privacy controls to accounts owned by teens over the past year.

In 2020, this video sharing application began allowing parents to place restrictions on their child's account. After that, parental controls are added with the freedom to adjust the privacy of the child's account.

On the other hand, the company has also placed restrictions on juvenile accounts since last year. Among other things, Direct Message restrictions, deactivating live streaming features, and restrictions on receiving, buying, and getting virtual gifts.

This addition is an important step for the company. This is because TikTok's predecessor, Musical.ly, was sanctioned by US $ 5.7 million in 2019 for failing to get parental consent for children under 13 years of age.