Global mobile short-form video platform TikTok hosted a media webinar introducing five approaches of the TikTok platform to protect adolescent users and discussing the direction of desirable digital literacy.
TikTok Korea is conducting a youth safety campaign under the theme #JustBeSafeBeingMe from the 21st to the 25th in observance of Youth Protection Awareness Week. It also produces and provides educational videos on youth protection features and educational leaflets for parents. In addition, digital literacy projects such as parent webinars are planned.
The media webinar was held as part of the 'Youth Protection Awareness Week' campaign, attended by Donggeun Ryu, TikTok Korea Public Policy Director, and Youngseop Shim, professor of Media, Video, and Public Relations at Kyung Hee Cyber University.
Professor Shim raised issues to consider for youth protection in the rapidly changing digital environment and the role of platforms. He emphasized, “Platforms like TikTok in the digital environment are required to expand and provide decision-making authority for self-regulation to adolescent users.”
Donggeun Ryu, TikTok Korea Public Policy Director, stressed, “TikTok focuses on creating a safe digital environment for adolescent users to achieve its mission of ‘inspiring creativity and bringing joy.’” Director Ryu introduced TikTok’s five safety approaches for protecting adolescent users: ▲Youth protection policies ▲Practical enforcement of policies ▲Various safety features provided within the app ▲Expert collaboration based on internal and external partnerships ▲Safety education CSR activities.
TikTok continuously strengthens its ‘Community Guidelines’ to help establish various safety policies for protecting users including adolescents. TikTok restricts content threatening adolescent users such as child sexual exploitation, crimes against children, and physical or psychological harm. It also limits exposure of advertisements for products and services that could potentially negatively affect adolescent users, continuously establishing diverse safety policies.
In terms of policy enforcement, TikTok proactively removes inappropriate content for adolescents (videos, audio, live broadcasts, images, comments, links, or text) using advanced technology and experts. As a result, during the third quarter of 2021, over 91 million videos violating community guidelines were removed, with 95.1% removed before user reports, 88.8% removed before exposure, and 93.9% removed within 24 hours of posting. Additionally, TikTok takes measures to prevent inappropriate content and content mentioning regulated substances from being recommended to adolescents through the ‘For You’ recommendation feature.
TikTok, available to users aged 14 and older, offers different features depending on the adolescent’s age. Accounts of users under 16 are set to private by default, meaning only approved followers can view posted videos. Users under 16 cannot use direct messaging (DM) or live streaming features, and others are restricted from downloading their videos or using duet and stitch features. The virtual gifting feature is unavailable to adolescent users under 18. Furthermore, to prevent the spread of content threatening adolescent safety via DM, TikTok does not allow sending images or videos through comments or DMs.
TikTok provides a ‘Safety Pairing’ feature that connects a guardian’s account to a child’s account to support safe usage. This allows various settings such as DM restrictions, private accounts, and account blocking. Additionally, TikTok introduced various community safety features including the ‘Think Again’ prompt before commenting, keyword and comment filtering, reporting functions, and in-app guides provided during challenge searches.
TikTok strengthens adolescent safety policies and various features globally through collaboration with diverse industry experts, NGOs, and international organizations. Under topics such as digital literacy and digital well-being, TikTok operates advisory committees by continent including the U.S., Europe, Asia-Pacific, and South America. Korea also continuously shares insights on topics such as information and communication ethics, intellectual property rights, digital literacy, and youth protection through the ‘TikTok Korea Safety Forum.’
Various social contribution activities related to safety are actively underway domestically as well. Earlier this month, TikTok signed an MOU with the Ministry of Health and Welfare and Korea Lifeline to promote youth suicide prevention activities. Additionally, TikTok is developing and expanding user and safety touchpoints by conducting the #SunfullMovement campaign combined with TikTok challenges in cooperation with the Sunfull Foundation to create a safe internet environment. TikTok also operates accounts providing easily accessible safety information to guide proper app usage.
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