Minors to have restricted access to TikTok

Peshawar: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has been informed a Peshawar court that Chinese giant TikTok had assured the minors will have a restricted access to the video sharing app.

All the authenticated users below the age of 14 will now access the app in a “youth mode.” in TikTok’s push to shield the young from content not accepted by the parents.

“The TikTok and the authorities are devising a mechanism to restrict children’s access to TikTok,” the court was told.

During a hearing, the PTA officials and the government’s legal team presented a compliance report, highlighting measures minimize access to the minors.

“We are devising a mechanism to bar children’s access to TikTok,” a PTA counsel said adding that mostly, children aged between 14 and 18 years are using TikTok.

He maintained that hundreds of thousands of videos are uploaded to the short video app in a day. “A focal person from TikTok will also be appointed soon,” he added.

The short video app Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, has already announced its authenticated users below the age of 14 will now access the app in a “youth mode.”

In the youth mode, under-14 users can only access the app for up to 40 minutes a day, and only between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., Douyin, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, said in a statement.

The measure to protect the young was the most stringent in the history of the platform, Douyin stated.