In an aggressive move to improve the well-being of young people, the video app TikTok is setting a 60-minute daily limit for users under 18.
Tech journalist and TikTok expert Chris Stokel-Walker chats to Corin Dann about what's behind the update.
Photo: Adrian Swancar / Unsplash
Although it's a good move by TikTok – whose more than billion users average at least 90 minutes a day on the app – we have to remain a bit cynical about why a tech company would do this, Stokel-Walker says.
He believes TikTok's main motivation for diminishing access to its services is reputational.
"Tech companies are being seen as pernicious and shaping harmful attitudes towards technology and self [so] anything like this is often because there is increased scrutiny."
TikTok – which is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance – is an app designed to immerse users in an endless scroll of videos.
Their first attempt at encouraging people to manage their use of the app – videos promoting phone breaks to late-night users – was back in February 2020 and Stokel-Walker says this new daily limit feature won't be the last.
"This is a real hot-button issue for tech giants at the moment."
According to TikTok "in the coming weeks", users under 18 will have their accounts default to a one-hour daily screen time limit. They'll also receive a weekly notification with a "recap of their screen time".
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