TikTok Launches Robust New Parental Controls to Limit Screen Time for Kids

TikTok is finally addressing the fact that kids and teens spend all day on the app, issuing new parental controls. 

These new TikTok parental controls, including additions to TikTok Family Pairing, come via an app update and seem to be quite useful for busy parents. First, a new TikTok screen time feature will now automatically limit app usage to 60 minutes each day for teens under the age of 18 as the default. This daily limit can be bypassed, but not without a passcode. 

Even with a successful passcode entry, TikTok will remind teens to stop using the app at regular intervals and continue to require the passcode to keep going beyond the 100-minute mark.  

The TikTok Family Pairing feature is also getting some new controls. Family Pairing allows parents to monitor their children’s activity on TikTok via their own accounts. Accessing this page lets parents set screen time limits for TikTok and view a detailed dashboard that illustrates when and for how long their kids were using the app. 

The Family Pairing dashboard even allows parents to filter out topics they don’t want their kids to see in the For You feed and set sleep reminders.

The update is being delivered just as US lawmakers are considering efforts to ban TikTok entirely for alleged national security reasons and for not doing enough to protect young users. 

The new TikTok screen time feature and Family Pairing updates begin rolling out today, but this is a tiered release, so it will take a few weeks to find its way to every app update box.