In the last decade social media has gone from silly dog lenses to over the top beauty filters. The latter is at the core of a new initiative from TikTok — the company currently being sued in 14 US states for negatively impacting young people’s mental health. TikTok is now taking a step to reduce young people’s access to these appearance altering effects, with the platform announcing new restrictions on Tuesday around which filters will be available to users under 18 years old.
TikTok is limiting anyone in this age group’s use of “some appearance effects,” a vague promise that’s scope will determine if its to actually help young people or just TikTok’s image. The company also plans to expand how much information each filter must have about changes to a person’s appearance. Plus, TikTok is “refreshing” its guidance for creators in its TikTok Effects House around the impact certain filters might have — again vague, so we’ll have to see if it’s just talk or actually beneficial.
Then there’s the matter of finding and banning users under 13 years old. The company claims to removes six million accounts worldwide each month of users that it suspects are underage. Now, TikTok is also “exploring” how to use machine learning to technology to detect accounts run by individuals under 13 years old to then be sent to a moderator to confirm. A TikTok spokesperson confirmed to Engadget that the company will initially test this in the UK, while the filter restrictions and guidance should roll out globally in the coming weeks and months.
