The Chinese version of TikTok is introducing a “teenage mode” that will limit the amount of time children under the age of 14 spend on the short-form video app to 40 minutes a day. CNN reports: The measure will apply to all Douyin users under the age of 14 who have registered for the app using their real names, Beijing-based ByteDance announced in a statement on Saturday. Douyin will also be unavailable to those users between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., the owner of TikTok and Douyin added. The company also urged parents to help their children register with real names, or otherwise manually enable “teenage mode.”
The app also said it would introduce new content — ranging from science experiments and museums to art gallery exhibition and natural scenery — to “inspire” younger teens. Limiting usage of Douyin is a “proactive measure” by ByteDance to get ahead of potential regulation, analysts at Citigroup Global Markets wrote in a Monday research note. They suggested that the decision could push other internet platforms with short video content to look at implementing similar restrictions.
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