TikTok blocks some beauty effects for under-18s to help with mental health
TikTok has announced that it will impose age restrictions on some of its facial-beautifying filters, due to concerns that they may be affecting the mental health of young people. The restrictions will be implemented worldwide within the next few weeks.
Updates from our European Safety Forum: strengthening safety for our now 175m-strong European community | TikTok Newsroom
TikTok will block beauty filters for teens over mental health concerns - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/27/24307314/tiktok-beauty-filter-effects-age-restriction-teens-wellbeing
TikTok will block beauty filters for European teens following pushback - Fast Company
https://www.fastcompany.com/91237772/tiktok-will-block-beauty-filters-for-european-teens-following-pushback
According to TikTok, they will restrict the use of some effects only for young people under the age of 18. It is not clear what effects will be restricted, but it is suggested that they will not be obvious effects such as adding animal ears, but effects that change appearance. Technology media The Verge pointed out that 'it seems that beauty effects that create smooth skin, long eyelashes, and slim faces, such as 'Bold Glamour', which greatly changes the appearance, will be restricted.'
They will also begin an initiative to clearly show how effects affect the appearance of a scene when they are used, to help people who create their own effects understand that the effects they create can have unintended consequences.
The change comes in the wake of a report by the UK child protection non-profit organisation Internet Matters, which said that beauty products are distorting children's values and subjecting them to peer pressure to look a certain way.
Additionally, to address concerns about harmful content and teen usage, TikTok has rolled out a number of measures to protect teenagers.
One of these is an initiative against self-harm and suicide. Already, when someone searches for 'self-harm,' the results are blocked and the user is redirected to a local NGO, but a new initiative will be introduced to connect the poster to a local support center when a post about self-harm is reported. This feature is scheduled to be available in 13 European countries.
Another issue is age restrictions. TikTok requires users to be 13 or older, and accounts for users under the age of 13 are automatically or manually frozen. However, there have been a number of cases where users under the age of 13 have registered by lying about their age, so the company is exploring ways to detect users under the age of 13 using new machine learning technology.
This technology will increase the chances of detecting people under the age of 13, and will allow human moderators to review the accounts and decide whether to freeze them. At the time of writing, the company is removing 6 million accounts per month for not meeting the minimum age requirement.
'There is no finish line when it comes to safety and security - it's about fostering a culture of trust, respect and support so people feel free to be their true selves,' said Christine Grahn, TikTok's European representative.
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