Chinese Version of TikTok Limits Use of Service by Children Under 14 to 40 Minutes Per Day

Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, announced that all verified users under the age of 14 will now have access to the app in “kid mode.” They will be able to work with the application for no more than 40 minutes a day and only between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. According to Douyin, this measure is the toughest in the history of the platform.

If some users under 14 who had not registered in the app with their real name, Douyin will suggest to their parents to help their children complete the real-name authentication to enter the “kid mode” or actively open the mode when the notice pops up.

Douyin has also prepared better content for users in “kid mode”, such as popular science experiments, exhibitions in museums and art galleries, beautiful scenery from all over the country, among other selections. The platform hopes that these types of content will stimulate children’s interest in a certain field.

In order to prevent minors from overindulging onthe Internet, major video apps launched “kid mode” back in 2019. When the user starts the application for the first time every day, the system will give a pop-up prompt to guide parents and teenagers to choose kid mode. After entering this mode, users will have limited usage time and service functions, and can only access the exclusive content pool for them.

Unlike other products in the industry, where minor users can only browse the recommended content, Douyin adds a discovery channel outside the recommendation page to provide systematic knowledge for minors, so that children can learn more about the content they are interested in. In August this year, Douyin launched a subscription function in kid mode so that young users could subscribe to the latest content of the accounts they are interested in.

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In addition, for the safety of teenagers aged 14 to 18, Douyin has launched protective measures such as two users can send private messages only after they have followed each other. Through such protection tools and customer service lines, Douyin has established a minor protection mechanism covering duration management, content filtering, privacy protection, consumer protection and complaint handling.