TikTok is lengthening the hours of its adult swim. The app is allowing users to limit their videos so only viewers aged 18 and above can view them.
In a blog post, TikTok revealed an expansion of its Content Levels, which categorize the app’s users by age and limit the content viewed by younger groups. As part of that initiative, TikTok is adding more support to a feature it initially introduced last year. Last October, the app announced that TikTok Live users who are 18 years and above would be allowed to have streams that are “limited to adults.” Now, a similar option will be introduced on regular TikTok videos.
The shortened 18+ limitation is rolling onto TikTok today and will be rolled out to more users “over the coming weeks.” The platform expects that this new update will enable users to push content to “the most appropriate audience.”
Being a site of adult-only content, TikTok is letting it be known. It’s not trying to be the next OnlyFans, and only wishes to keep its youngest members safe. To make it clear: our guidelines still completely cover creators who use this feature, and we will take down content that features nudity and other infirmities of our Community Guidelines,” says the blog post of the company. “We constantly inform creators about our guidelines because it takes a village to create a community where everyone is welcome and safe.”
The 18+ filter is just one of the strategies TikTok is using as it works to make its For You Feeds safe for all ages. Similar to its rival YouTube, it is spending money on AI to speed up and improve the way it moderates its site. It has also teamed up with StopNCII. As that group’s name suggests, its mission is to stop the spread of all non-consensual intimate images.
These initiatives are already product outcomes. TikTok mentioned that its Content Levels stopped teens from viewing 1 million “overtly sexually suggestive” posts within a 30-day timeframe.
TikTok is backed by an influential champion to battle on social media‘s youth users. In his 2022 State of the Union, President Biden initiated a parallel endeavor. Now TikTok and the White House find themselves united with respect to underage security, making it all the more plausible it can force an agreement to bolster its position within the United States.
