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A month after federal regulators ordered it to disclose how its practices affect children and teens, TikTok is tightening its privacy practices for the crowd under 18.
As of Wednesday, the default privacy setting for accounts with users aged 13 to 15 is private. This means that only someone who approves the user as a follower can see their videos, which was not the case before. But teens can still change this setting in public if they want to.
Older teens will not change the default setting. For 16 or 17 year olds, the default setting is for people to download the videos they have created, rather than ‘on’.
TikTok also blocks the ability of users to download videos created by 15 or younger. This age group will also be able to restrict instant messaging and will not be able to host live streams.
TikTok is very popular among teenagers and younger children. A feature called TikTok for Younger Users provides pre-selected, “age-appropriate” videos. The feature was added after TikTok’s predecessor, Musica.ly, ruled out FTC allegations that it had illegally collected personal information from children. The company also agreed to pay $ 5.7 million.
A family pairing, meanwhile, allows parents to link their TikTok account to their teens to enable content and privacy settings.
Last month, the Federal Trade Commission asked TikTok’s parent company, along with Facebook, Twitter, Amazon and five other social media companies, to provide detailed information on how they collect and use personal data from consumers and how their practice affects children and teens.
TikTok users are asked to set their birthday when they sign up for the service, but as with other social media platforms, there is no real verification to ensure it is accurate.