Now parents can control their kids' TikTok accounts: Everything you need to know

Is your child spending a lot of time on TikTok? Worry no more as you will soon be able to control your children's TikTok activities. The short video sharing platform TikTok has introduced a new feature that would let parents set restrictions on their kids' accounts without the kid knowing about it. The new feature is called Family Pairing, which would allow parents to link their accounts to their kids' accounts. By doing that, the parents will have direct access to their kids' direct messages section and they can also control the kind of content their children view on the app.

The new feature by TikTok will also disable direct messaging for users under the age of 16 in all the countries including the US. Earlier, a similar feature called the Family Safety Mode was launched in the UK. The Bytedance-owned company has said that the feature will be made available to the users across the globe in the coming weeks.

So how will it work?

The first and foremost task of a parent would be to convince his kid to link his account with his parents. If the parent fails to do that, there isn't much that TikTok can do.

However, if a parent is successful in convincing his kid, he should make an account for himself first on the app. This is applicable for parents of teenage users aged 13 or older than that. Once the account is linked, the parents can set controls on how long can their kid browse the app or watch content on the app. They can also keep a check on their kids' DM section and control who their kids' interact with. Not just this, the parents can also switch on the restricted mode in their kids' account which blocks all the inappropriate content or the content that should not be watched by a teenager.

"More than ever, families are turning to internet platforms like TikTok to stay entertained, informed, and connected. That was, of course, happening before COVID-19, but it has only accelerated since the outbreak began and social distancing brought families closer together. The embrace of platforms like ours is providing families with joint tools to express their creativity, share their stories, and show support for their communities. At the same time, they are often learning to navigate the digital landscape together and focused on ensuring a safe experience," TikTok director of Trust & Safety, Jeff Collins was quoted by TechCrunch.

Earlier, streaming app Netflix had also introduced parental controls, that allow the parents to keep a check on the kind of shows, movies their kid is watching on the app.