JAKARTA - TikTok is again protecting teenage users from the dangerous challenges of social media, by offering security-focused features in Europe and Australia. Some of them were announced in advance in the United States (US) earlier this month.
The steps include a permanent in-app guide that encourages teens to engage with a "4-step" process of stopping, thinking, deciding and acting before engaging in an online challenge.
Specific policy categories for malicious actions and challenges in the reporting menu are also useful for making it easier for users to report problematic challenges, and custom safety videos from curated creator content.
This is pushed to users under the age of 18 via the For You feed to further raise awareness of the security issues surrounding the challenge.
In a sample video from the #SaferTogether campaign, TikTok creator @maddylucydann is seen sketching a scenario in which a medic in an emergency department is figuring out what to tell a young patient being treated for a serious injury after a fall trying to mimic parkour.
Launching TechCrunch, Thursday, February 24th, the victims imitated from the video circulating but without the necessary skills to perform tricks safely, and with this feature to make kids think before they try something equally ridiculous.
The China-based company remains the target of major user protection complaints in the European Union (EU) region, which has led to active monitoring of its policies by the European Commission.
Along with this announcement, TikTok said it is making a financial contribution to Western Sydney University to support further research on online challenges, and is sharing research data with the university's Young and Resilient Research Center for that purpose.
TikTok did not specify how much money was donated to the university. The video-sharing platform has faced months of scrutiny by regulators in the EU following consumer protection and privacy complaints, and emergency intervention in Italy last year over concerns over the blackout challenge that local media linked to the death of a child.
Meanwhile in the US, technology executives from major platforms have been criticized by lawmakers on the matter, which has led to a number of bills being proposed, including the most recent being the Children's Online Safety Act.
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