Rabat – Social media platform TikTok on Thursday announced the upcoming launch of features that would allow users to control their digital experience and protect their well-being.
Targeting teenagers, in particular, the new tools are set to support already available daily screen time limits by reminding users to take a break after a certain amount of uninterrupted screen time – the duration is set by the users.
The new feature also includes a screen time dashboard that provides users with summaries of their daily time spent on the application, the number of times they opened it, as well as a breakdown of their daytime and nighttime usage. TikTok users can schedule weekly notifications to review their dashboard.
Additional weekly digital well-being prompts will be provided for users aged between 13 and 17. The teenagers will be reminded of the screen time limit option once they exceed 100 minutes per day.
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The new built-in features are expected to be a welcome addition for young users, prompting them to both think critically about the time that they are spending online, but also encourage them to use settings to actively manage the time they spent on the app,” said Carolyn Bunting MBE, CEO, Internet Matters.
Stressing on the agency of people in digital spaces, Nina Vasan and Sara Johansen, advisors from Stanford University School of Medicine noted for their part that users need tools that allow them to use social media in intentional and mindful ways.
They added that “features that provide people with insight into screentime, and allow them to flexibly customize their online experiences to emphasize quality over quantity, can help provide this sense of agency and support mindfulness.”
While built-in screen time limiting options might provide good incentives for users to reduce their consumption of social media content, the efficiency of such options remains up to the users’ commitment to them.
