On top of the time restriction, kids in China won’t be able to access Douyin between 10PM and 6AM. The new controls only apply to users who supplied their real names and ages, so to that end, Douyin has asked parents to register their kids’ real information. ByteDance also added more content to Douyin with educational subjects like science, art history, history and more. The new app, Xiao Qu Xing, appears to offer exclusively educational content.
Gaming limits introduced earlier this month are even more restrictive, with under-14s limited to just three hours per week between 8-9PM on Friday, weekends and public holidays. Previously, kids could game for 90 minutes a day and three hours on holidays. The rule change was put in place to combat gaming addiction, regulators said.
The TikTok restrictions won’t affect as many kids, however. According to an article in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), just 0.34 percent of Douyin users are under 12, with 4.18 percent from 13-19 years old. Those figures are far from certain, though, as Douyin doesn’t publish demographic data.
It also acknowledged that it might be easy to bypass the new rules. “As the first short video platform to launch minor protection measures, we deeply understand that there will be imperfections,” the company said in a statement. To that end, it has launched a bug-finding campaign seeking “loopholes” in the login process.
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
social experiment by Livio Acerbo #greengroundit #engadget https://www.engadget.com/tik-tok-china-limits-kids-under-14-to-40-minutes-each-day-091559878.html?src=rss