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Everyone knows the effects prolonged screen time can have and not just for adults who work on their computers all day, but especially for young minds that are being exposed to non-stop content from a flashing screen. Social media companies are taking a more pro-active approach and are looking for ways to remind users to take a break, do something active or just maybe blink your eyes a time or two! TikTok is stepping up to help its users be more aware of how much time they are spending watching their timeline by rolling out a new time limit for users under 18. This time limit will be a default feature and will of course offer some ways to bypass it but for the most part it will require adult supervision and some discipline. Once in place, here's how it will reportedly work:
If the user is under 18 the app will deny them access once they've been on the app for 1 hour or 60 minutes consecutively.
The user can then enter a passcode to bypass this time limit and continue scrolling, but the hope is that this interruption will spur more awareness of time spent online or staring at a screen and decrease usage. If the user that is under 18 removes the time limit the app will require them to set a daily screen time limit if they are surpassing 100 minutes a day. Now if the user is under 13, they reportedly can extend the 1 hour time limit after their parent enters the password. The minor can then continue for another 30 minutes of use. Parents will also reportedly have some new parental controls that can censor feeds based on words used in the content and/or filter which videos the youth will be able to watch all together. Are you ready for these updates and parents how much will you be involved with the content your kids are accessing once this goes into place?