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TikTok and Kuaishou now have a mode to restrict video-addicted kids
Dancing clips and funny stunts are replaced with origami and drawing tutorials
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This article originally appeared on ABACUS
Starting today, kids in China using the local version of TikTok could find themselves locked out of the viral short video app. Douyin, known as TikTok overseas, is adding a "teenager mode". If parents turn it, their kids won't be able to use the app for more than 40 minutes a day.
TikTok, the viral short video sensation, has its roots in China
It's not alone: Along with Douyin, rivals Kuaishou and Huoshan also rolled out a teenager mode at the request of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), which said it will require all short video apps add an anti-addiction system by June.
It shows the contrast in approach between the US and China. In January, TikTok stopped allowing children under the age of 13 to use the app after the company was fined by the US Federal Trade Commission for illegally collecting data on children. China isn't adding an age limit; instead, it's letting parents opt into the teenager mode.
Once the teenager mode is enabled by adding a password, both Douyin and Kuaishou only let kids spend 40 minutes using the apps each day before locking them out. And they won’t be able to use the apps at all between 10pm and 6am.
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Young users face other limitations, as well. They can’t send gifts, add or withdraw money from their accounts or start a live stream.
This precaution could be protecting the companies as much as the kids. In January, a teenage girl in China tipped live streamers a total of US$73,000 on the platform Yinke, resulting in a lawsuit from the girl’s mother.
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