TikTok’s goal is to ensure that users have a pleasant and secure experience, through providing various tools related to safety. Kevin Morgan, Head of Trust and Safety at TikTok EMEA, told Daily News Egypt that the platform has an amazing creative community of more than 1 billion people around the world who come to TikTok every month to create, share, discover, and connect.
He added that there are content classification methods on TikTok that consider cultural and geographical preferences. The “For You” feed (FYF) is a distinct feature that utilizes a personalized recommendation system, enabling each TikTok user to explore a wide range of content, creators, and topics.
Many Egyptian and Arab parents fear that TikTok might negatively impact their children. Could you elaborate on the safety tools available on the platform that ensure safety for children?
At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity, bring joy, and provide users with an experience that is developmentally appropriate and helps to ensure a safe space for self-exploration. That’s the main reason behind ensuring that youth safety is our priority, and to achieve those goals we worked on tailoring their experience on the platform. First, there is an age limit as you have to be 13 years old or above to create an account on TikTok. Second, as we recognize that adolescence is an important phase for teens, as this is a time when they’re exploring the world around them and beginning to define their own identities both online and offline, we prohibit any content that may put young users at risk of exploitation, or psychological, physical, or developmental harm.
Therefore, teenagers aged 13 and above encounter a distinct experience on the platform because user information is not permitted to be shared, and content and user interaction are severely restricted. They can not share their videos, comment on others’ videos, message users, or maintain a profile or followers. Despite this, they can enjoy curated content and experiment with TikTok’s unique, fanciful, and expressive features, which are at the core of the concept behind TikTok – showcasing creativity.
Moreover, stemming from our awareness that parents may fear the risks that their children are exposed to in the digital space, we presented a new feature “Family Pairing” that enables parents to effectively manage their children’s content settings and privacy measures, such as screen time management, interaction controls, and the ability to disable direct messaging.
Apart from our ‘TikTok Guardian’s Guide’ that provides clear and detailed information about TikTok’s safety features and tools, privacy settings, and community guidelines to help ensure their teens have a positive and enriching experience on the platform, we also regularly roll out campaigns and activations to help ensure parents have all the information they need. For example, here in Egypt, we launched the Safety Ambassadors Program where we aimed to emphasize TikTok’s safety features, moderation policies, and community guidelines to clarify their stance on harmful and inappropriate content posted by users. We collaborated with key influential figures who responsibly use the internet and who can educate the public on more responsible internet usage. Moreover, to raise awareness about the Family Pairing Feature and highlight TikTok’s safety features tools, we launched a parent-children activation in Trapped Egypt during Internet Safety Day (in July 2022). We organized a customized experience for some influential figures where they brought their children and educated them on our features in a fun and engaging way. They went through a series of safety TikTok-focused clues to escape in time, where the clues mainly focused on different safety measures, such as Family Pairing, Restricted Mode, Private Accounts, Comments on videos, Direct Messages, and the Search Feature.
Can parents monitor their children on TikTok?
We value parental involvement and offer resources, tools, and guidance to help parents support their children’s online experiences and well-being. One of the features we provide is “Family Pairing”, which lets parents link their TikTok account with their teen’s account and access various settings to manage screen time, interactions, and direct messages. This feature also allows parents to filter content and limit the exposure of their teens to content they may find inappropriate.
We encourage parents and teens to have honest conversations about these settings and agree on what is safe for them. Family Pairing also helps parents and teens communicate openly about responsible online behavior and strengthen their relationship.
This approach promotes discussions about digital responsibility, privacy, and the potential risks of certain online activities. It creates a safe space for parents and teens to address concerns, share knowledge, and set boundaries together.
Is there a content classification method that is based on cultural and geographical preferences?
Yes, TikTok has content classification methods that take into account cultural and geographical preferences. The For You feed (FYF) is a unique feature that uses a personalized recommendation system, allowing each TikTok user to discover a variety of content, creators, and topics. We consider different factors such as likes, shares, comments, searches, content diversity, popular videos, and users’ cultures based on their location when recommending content.
We also have content eligibility standards for the FYF that prioritize safety across all locations, and reflect the diversity of our community and cultural norms. This ensures that users see content that matches their cultural and geographical preferences, improving their TikTok experience.
What are the guidelines for the content published on TikTok?
At TikTok, we aim to inspire human creativity by enabling creative expression and being a source of entertainment and enrichment for everyone. TikTok welcomes people from all over the world to explore diverse ideas, creators, and products while connecting with others in the community. To ensure a safe and lively experience, we follow Community Guidelines that are based on legal frameworks, industry practices, and expert and advisory council input, as we strive to balance expression and harm prevention. As I mentioned earlier, we regularly update the guidelines to address emerging risks and harms, and we use a combination of safety approaches, from enforcing rules and standards to creating platform norms and resources that give our community members more control and choice.
TikTok’s content moderation approach focuses on removing rule-breaking content and banning accounts if the account holder is a violent or hateful user or has been convicted of a sexual crime or other serious offense against users on the platform while empowering the community with information and resources. We also urge users to be kind and respectful and appreciate their help in making a friendly space for all. Moreover, we are very careful about the content that appears on the For You feed as we know that it reaches millions of users, so we have content eligibility standards for the For You feed that prioritize safety and respect the diversity of our community and cultural norms.
What constitutes inappropriate content for children on TikTok? And how does the platform deal with it?
TikTok does not tolerate inappropriate content, such as hate speech, harassment, and bullying. Our guidelines require us to remove such content from the platform as we do not accept abusive behavior and have strict policies against adult nudity and sexual activities. Moreover, TikTok enforces minimum age requirements to use the platform, and bans content that involves or promotes child abuse, child nudity, or sexual exploitation of children; such content is reported to legal authorities and deleted from the platform as soon as we detect it.
What are TikTok’s tips for parents to ensure their children’s digital safety using the platform?
TikTok provides several ways for parents to ensure their children’s digital safety on the platform. The platform prioritizes user safety by applying strong safety measures, content moderation systems, and proactive detection methods to identify and remove harmful or inappropriate content. It also shows a commitment to continuous improvement by regularly updating and refining its safety features, policies, and guidelines based on user feedback, emerging trends, and best practices.
To create a safe online environment, TikTok adopts a collaborative approach by partnering with experts, organizations, and stakeholders to share knowledge, insights, and best practices. It also fosters transparent communication by clearly communicating community guidelines, safety measures, and updates to users, parents, and the public, and empowers users, including teenagers and parents, by providing robust privacy settings, reporting mechanisms, and a sense of ownership and agency. At TikTok, we value parental involvement and offer resources, tools, and guidance to parents to support their children’s online experiences and well-being; through customizable parental control features such as the “Family Pairing” that allows parents to monitor and manage their teen’s online activities, including setting time limits, content filtering, and access restrictions.
What features can users employ if they encounter inappropriate content that they don’t wish to see repeatedly?
TikTok’s goal is to ensure that users have an enjoyable and secure experience, by providing various tools related to safety, privacy, and well-being, allowing users to personalize their experience on the platform. TikTok is a diverse global community that offers a wide range of popular, entertaining, and innovative content where users can customize their content consumption by adjusting settings and preferences, enabling them to tailor their TikTok feed according to their interests; such as the “Not Interested” button to curate their feed and the option to report offensive or guideline-violating videos. Additionally, users can enable Restricted Mode to limit the exposure of inappropriate content if/when encountered. Therefore, we encourage users to take an active and leading role in maintaining a safe and positive TikTok community by promptly reporting any inappropriate or concerning content they encounter. Together, we can create a space where everyone feels empowered and supported.
