Between doing nothing and being banned altogether, there’s also a middle way if your teen is using TikTok. On Internet Safer Day, here are some tweaks you should be aware of and turn on to improve your child’s TikTok environment.
It is undoubtedly one of the favorite applications of teenagers. It is also popular with many children, if they access a smartphone very early. The success of TikTok is spectacular, including in France, and this worries other social networks, such as Facebook and Instagram – especially since the attempts to respond have not really borne fruit.
But TikTok is also regularly caught up in controversy. On the how the application is designed, which prompts you to stay and keep scrolling through videos. On how his recommendation algorithm works. On its processing of personal data. On the effect it would have on youth. On its links with China, which would use it as a tool of influence.
Today, all these challenges lead many Internet users to say that it would be better to prevent minors from having access to them. But this is to forget that families have a different relationship to digital technology and to the supervision of children. But, between outright prohibition and laissez-faire, there is a happy medium for a reasoned and reasonable use of TikTok.
Settings exist in the app settings. These can help provide a safer environment for your child, if you’ve chosen to let them use TikTok — or, in the case of your teen, whose digital coaching may be trickier to obtain. If you can talk it over, maybe he or she will agree to make their account more secure.
1. Make TikTok account private
TikTok gives you the option to set your account to private, which prevents those who don’t follow you from seeing the profile and videos (assuming your teen publishes them). Note that people who already follow the profile will not be affected by this change. In this case, it is recommended to then review this list and eject unknown or questionable profiles.
- Click on “Profile” at the bottom right of the screen, then on the “hamburger” menu at the top right;
- Choose “Settings and privacy”, then “Privacy”;
- Activate “Private account”.
It should also be noted that since 2021, TikTok has imposed a default private profile for the youngest (if they did not lie about their age when registering). This applies to teenagers between the ages of 13 and 15. It is of course not forbidden to keep this parameter after this slot if you do not want to expose the profile of your offspring to the four winds.
2. Check account suggestion and contacts sync
TikTok suggests accounts to other users and syncs Facebook contacts and friends. There are options to review and perhaps uncheck. This includes phone contacts, Facebook friends, mutual friends on TikTok, and other interactions, including off TikTok. These settings can also be found in the “Privacy” section,
- Click on “Profile” at the bottom right of the screen, then on the “hamburger” menu at the top right;
- Choose “Settings and privacy”, then “Privacy”;
- Visit the two corresponding options and uncheck what seems excessive to you.
3. Filter comments
In the “Interactions” section, you can restrict the right to comment (everyone, the accounts you follow or no one). You can also filter all comments and decide which ones you agree to leave. This will allow you to intercept hostile messages before the public can see them. Note that you can also ask TikTok for a hand.
The application provides more or less sensitive filters to intercept spam, advertising, insults and profanity, as well as inappropriate or offensive content. You can request less control, more control, or choose an automatic setting. Algorithms are at work: they are fallible and sometimes miss a message that should be blocked.
If necessary, you have the option to filter specific keywords, by providing them to TikTok. By activating the option, you will have to add terms that you think should be hidden. Here, everything will depend on the situation of your teenager or your child, what constitutes a sensitive subject or what you consider essential to neutralize.
4. Filter Direct (Private) Messages, Mentions, and Tags
Since 2020, Tiktok has prohibited its members under the age of 16 from accessing private messaging, which allows them to send direct messages (unless registration was done by lying about their age). It is nevertheless useful to check if this is indeed the case. Additionally, beyond 16, there are also options worth considering.
On the direct message side, you can choose between receiving nothing, receiving messages from people you follow, and people you’ve messaged before. You can also open your PMs to suggested friends, with whom you are not yet linked on TikTok. Make sure you’ve enabled filtered requests, which intercept “suspicious” people.
On the mentions and labels side, you can choose between four options: everyone, people you follow, people who follow you. And that you follow or nobody. It may be useful to keep the option active, in order to always have an eye on the videos that are associated with your child or your teenager, in order, if necessary, to make a report.
5. Limit daily use of TikTok
This is perhaps the option that you will have the most difficulty selling or imposing on your offspring. The application includes a utility to manage screen time and to voluntarily set limits (because TikTok seeks to make you stay as long as possible). We have an explanatory guide on how to limit the time spent on TikTok.
The option is in the “Content and Display” section.
- Click on “Profile” at the bottom right of the screen, then on the “hamburger” menu at the top right;
- Choose “Settings and privacy”, then “Screen time”;
- You then have two options that can be activated: the first on screen time per day (40, 60, 90 or 120 minutes per day) and the second is a reminder system to invite you to take breaks from time to time.
6. The “Family Connection” option
This utility is, in short, a synthesis of the options that TikTok finds useful to provide to parents. The tool caps several parameters mentioned above:
- Limitation of viewing time per day;
- Restriction of messages received from outside;
- Managing privacy and security settings;
- Switching the account to private or public
To activate this family connection, you will have to mobilize two smartphones (yours and that of your toddler) and define what is the status of each (parent or teenager). You will then need to pair the two TikTok accounts through a QR code scan. In the scheme imagined by TikTok, it is up to the child’s smartphone to scan the parents’ QR code.
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