What Parents Need To Know About TikTok’s New Parental Control Tool

If TikTok was having a moment before the pandemic, it’s really experiencing a surge in popularity and attention right now as tweens and teens everywhere are stuck at home and have nothing better to do than convince their parents to perform choreographed dances for social media. So the timing is good for the short-form video platform app’s announcement of the rollout of a new parental control feature that it says will allow a parent to link their account to their kid’s account and set restrictions remotely.

TikTok is calling this new parental control tool “Family Pairing” because your accounts will be linked and parents will be able to control their child’s settings from their own phone. The Verge explains:

Parents will still have to get their kids to agree to have their accounts linked under the new system. To set it up, parents need to scan a QR code inside the digital wellbeing section of their kid’s account. Kids will be able to disable the feature at any time, though there are some roadblocks: parents will receive a notification, and they’ll have a chance to re-link the account in case it was disconnected by accident.

(And, I mean, if they’re resistant to this, you could make linking the accounts a requirement for them to use the app. Shrugging emoji.)

The restrictions that can be managed via Family Pairing have three main components: First, in addition to short videos that appear in the app encouraging users to take a screen break, parents can also control how long their child can spend on the app each day. Second, a “restricted mode” can limit content that may not be appropriate for young users.

And third, parents can restrict who can send messages to their child’s account—or turn off direct messaging completely. This is on top of other messaging controls that were already in place, such as only approved followers being able to message each other and the inability to send images or videos via messages. In addition, starting April 30, TikTok says it will automatically disable direct messages for registered accounts of users under age 16.

The new feature is rolling out “over the coming weeks” and TikTok says even without Family Pairing enabled, parents can help their kids set the screen time management and restricted mode by visiting the app’s “digital wellbeing” controls. But having the accounts paired means you can more easily check in on the controls and adjust them as needed over time.