The default privacy setting for young users will now be set to private.
TikTok has announced sweeping changes to how the accounts of younger users are handled to shield minors from potentially inappropriate interaction with strangers. On Wednesday, TikTok’s Head of US Safety, Eric Han, said that any accounts registered to those of the ages between 13 and 15 will now be private by default, and so there are limits on who can view and comment on any content they post. When an account is set to private, only approved followers can view and interact with content created by the account holder on the video-sharing platform, and furthermore, users between 13 and 15 can now choose between allowing only friends to comment on their videos — or no-one. TikTok’s «Suggest your account to others» option has also been set to «Off» by default for this age group. «We want our younger users to be able to make informed choices about what and with whom they choose to share, which includes whether they want to open their account to public views,» Han commented.
