TikTok restricted the confidentiality parameters of its users between 13 and 15 years old on Wednesday, days after a group of observers accused the social network’s algorithm of favoring access to videos sexualized with minors.
“Starting today, the default confidentiality settings for all TikTok users ages 13-15 will automatically go into ‘Private’ mode. Specifically, this means that only followers accepted by those users will be able to view their videos.” said the social network, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, in a statement.
Among other “major changes”, TikTok will also allow only their only “friends” to comment on the videos of those users and will prevent them from being downloaded . The platform had eliminated its messaging tools for users under 16 years of age, and the possibility of broadcasting live, and offered, like other networks, family control procedures.
In a video released at the end of December on YouTube, a video maker called ‘Le roi des rats’ (The King of Rats) accused the TikTok algorithm of favoring access to sexualized videos (dances, suggestive positions, simulation of sexual practices) in which minors sometimes participated , and showed that it was easy, at any age, to be able to access illegal content, such as bestiality and scatophilia.
“On the one hand, TikTok disseminates sexy videos of adolescents, or even children, sometimes bordering on child pornography, which pedophiles can access and, on the other, the platform exposes these young people to pornographic content,” he reported earlier January the association ‘Les effronté-e-s’, as a result of this investigation.
The association claimed that TikTok would review its algorithm, include in its parameters a more effective parental control function and that it would reinforce content moderation. Despite strict rules on content that sexualizes or exploits children, young people’s favorite social networks, such as Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube or Instagram, are often criticized for not sufficiently protecting children.
