There are currently two ways to restrict content shown to children on TikTok:

• the “Family Pairing” setting
• the “Digital Wellbeing” setting.

“Family Pairing” allows a parent to attach their child’s account to their own, see the direct messages that their child receives and set usage time limits. “Digital Wellbeing” allows a user to set their own limits on usage on their account.

However, these controls have not prevented dangerous trends and behaviours, predatory actions and privacy issues arising as a result of children and their parents being unaware of the consequences of using social media. It is not difficult to imagine that a tech savvy child could avoid these controls by starting up a different account to the one that is linked to/has limits set by their parents. Other children may not have any parent controls on their use of TikTok.

Further information can be found in the eSafety Commissioner’s Guide to Tik Tok.