The lawsuit accused TikTok of designing its services in a manner that encourages addiction and exposes teenagers to content involving violence and self-harm. It alleged that the platform contributed to a rise in emergency room visits related to self-harm, and that the company made misleading claims regarding the protection of teens from dangerous content.
اضافة اعلان
The settlement extends beyond financial compensation to encompass structural changes in user experience. In addition to the daily two-hour cap, parental control tools will allow parents to further reduce the time their children spend on the app. The measures include forced pauses that interrupt continuous use after 15 minutes, and again at 60 and 90 minutes, to curb endless video scrolling.
On the content and communication fronts, TikTok agreed to tighten moderation, restrict adults' ability to discover teen accounts, and notify parents of suspicious interactions between their children and adult users.
This move comes amid growing regulatory pressure on social media companies regarding the impact of their services on minors. According to a report by Digital Trends, Meta paid over $17 billion a month ago to settle a dispute with a coalition of states and agreed to broad restrictions to protect users under eighteen. Over recent months, Meta, Snapchat, and OpenAI have all introduced measures to limit usage and enhance teen protections.
Additionally, ChatGPT will alert parents in situations where their children discuss sensitive topics, such as mental health, or experience severe emotional distress, alongside rolling out more effective parental control tools.
Resource: Al-Ghad.
