TikTok Announces a New Time Limit

TikTok has recently announced how the app installed a one-hour time limit update for its under 18 users. Under 18 users will automatically have a 60-minute screen time limit on the app. But is this update going to be necessary? I honestly believe that this update will not do any good. I think that the app is better off without it. 

Users will still have the option to change the amount of the limit, but they will need to enter their passcode. “Requiring them to make an active decision to extend that time,” Cormac Keenan, head of trust and safety at TikTok, wrote in the company’s announcement. Many users are going to avoid this update by typing in the password to set the limit for much longer. This proves that not many people are going to find this update necessary. I think this update just gives users something to avoid.

Even though I find this update unnecessary, I think they had good intentions for it. They knew many people were addicted to the app. Because of that, a large number of users tend to stay on the app for multiple hours a day. I myself am one of those people who find it hard to stay off the app, but do I think this update is going to fix this problem? No. 

All this update does is that it notifies you when you have been on the app for more than an hour. You then have the option to click ten more minutes or press okay. So this update does not kick you off the app or anything. Instead, it alerts the user that they have been on the app for a long time so the user can decide to take a break. I don’t think there is any point in the update since it does nothing but gives the user a notification. This notification is easily ignored and it is not useful. 

So overall, this update was not a good idea. I don’t think many users find it helpful since they are ignoring it. I think TikTok should have given everyone the option to decide if they wanted the screen time on their account. The app is practically forcing screen time on its younger users who don’t even want it.  The app was better off without it. Maybe it could have been more effective if the screen time made the user gets kicked out of the app or disable their ability to continue watching their videos. However, the TikTok setting limit was not a good idea.