TikTok will block beauty filters for teens over mental health concerns

TikTok is placing property restrictions connected immoderate of its quality filters to code concerns astir however they interaction the intelligence wellness of its teenage users. Some of the changes rolling retired “in the coming weeks” see preventing under-18s from utilizing definite appearance-altering effects, and expanding filter descriptions to specify what the filters set erstwhile applied.

The press merchandise says that property restrictions won’t use to filter effects that are “designed to beryllium evident and funny,” specified arsenic adding carnal ears oregon comically exaggerating definite features. The alteration apt aims to code beautifying effects similar Bold Glamour that springiness users smoother skin, longer eyelashes, and slimmer faces — which tin beryllium much hard to detect.

As the announcement was made astatine TikTok’s European Safety Forum successful Dublin and published connected TikTok’s European newsroom, it’s unclear if these updates volition beryllium rolling retired globally. We’ve asked TikTok to clarify wherever the caller restrictions volition beryllium applied.

The changes are being introduced successful effect to a study from the children’s online information non-profit Internet Matters, which recovered that “beautifying filters contributed to a distorted worldview successful which perfected images are normalized.” Children were often incapable to archer erstwhile images had been altered, according to the report, and faced “significant societal pressure” to look a definite mode online.

New resources volition besides beryllium introduced to 13 unspecified European countries “in the coming weeks” that volition link users who study contented for suicide, self-harm, hate, and harassment concerns to applicable section helplines. According to TikTok, the level present has implicit 175 cardinal monthly progressive users successful Europe.

“There’s nary decorativeness enactment erstwhile it comes to information and security, and we volition proceed to larn from our community, spouse with experts and strive to bash adjacent better,” Christine Grahn, TikTok’s European nationalist argumentation head, said connected LinkedIn. “If our users don’t consciousness safe, they won’t bring their existent selves to TikTok and the level conscionable wouldn’t beryllium the same.”

TikTok is besides exploring caller machine-learning technologies that tin observe accounts made by users who are nether 13 — the minimum property permitted to usage the platform. The institution says that users who person their accounts deleted volition beryllium capable to entreaty “if they deliberation we’ve made a mistake,” and that it removes astir six cardinal accounts globally each twelvemonth that don’t conscionable its minimum property requirements.