TikTok will block beauty filters for teens over mental health concerns

TikTok is placing property restrictions connected immoderate of its beauty filters to reside concerns astir really they effect 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 select descriptions to specify what the filters set erstwhile applied.

The press merchandise says that property restrictions won’t use to select effects that are “designed to beryllium evident and funny,” specified arsenic adding animal ears aliases comically exaggerating definite features. The alteration apt intends to reside beautifying effects for illustration Bold Glamour that springiness users smoother skin, longer eyelashes, and slimmer faces — which tin beryllium much difficult 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 will beryllium rolling retired globally. We’ve asked TikTok to explain wherever the caller restrictions will beryllium applied.

The changes are being introduced successful consequence 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 show erstwhile images had been altered, according to the report, and faced “significant societal pressure” to look a definite measurement online.

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

“There’s nary decorativeness statement erstwhile it comes to information and security, and we will proceed to study from our community, partner pinch experts and strive to do moreover 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 will 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 meet its minimum property requirements.