1 hour a day on TikTok, a really effective measure?

This Wednesday, March 1, 2023, the Chinese platform Tiktok unveiled in a Press release a measure for limit daily screen time of its app for kids and teens. This app, which has become very popular with young people, thanks to its short video formats with background music, its challenges and its trendy filters, should in the future be used only 60 minutes per day by those under 18. This new feature should be implemented in “a few weeks”, the platform said. It was designed to respond to the various criticisms that point to the addictive power application among young people. According to one recent annual survey from Qustodio, a parental control software company, 4-18 year olds spend an average of nearly two hours a day on Tiktokwell ahead of other social networks.

Specifically, a user under the age of 18 will be able to view 1 hour maximum of videos per day on TikTok. After this time, a message will appear on the screen of his phone – “For your well-being, your daily screen time has been set at one hour.” – and thus interrupt its navigation. The application has carried out tests for a month on these so-called awareness messages and ensures that “This approach has increased the use of our screen time management tools by 234%.”

What are the limits of this new Tiktok feature?

However, this usage limit does not mean that access to Tiktok will be blocked if the user does not respect it. The young person under 18 will simply have to enter a password on his application to be able to continue using Tiktok, “which will lead him to take the initiative to extend his time on the platform or not”, says the company. The Chinese platform also explains that if it exceeds 100 minutes of screen time in a day “he will receive an alert prompting him to set a daily time limit”. Moreover, the functionality can be deactivated at any time by the user in the application settings.

What is the opinion of the French authorities on this measure of Tiktok?

Following the announcement of this measure by the Tiktok application, Charlotte Caubel, Secretary of State for Child Protection, reacted. This feature “going in the right direction” and can inspire other platforms used by young people, she said on her Twitter account. However, she still does not respond to “all of our concerns, particularly with regard to the Data protection of users and the content of accessible content for our children”, she specifies.

Guest this Thursday, March 2 on RMC, The Minister Delegate for the Digital Transition Jean-Noël Barrot also spoke on the subject. For him, “limiting TikTok to less than an hour a day is a welcome step forward, but mobilization must be stepped up to better protect our children.”