TikTok had already announced that it would be expanding its audience access controls sometime back in 2022, giving creators the ability to restrict their videos to adult viewers. This functionality was only originally available on TikTok LIVE, so this expansion now brings that capacity to all its short-form content, too. Adult-only TikToks? Now that seems like extremely deep water to tread.
As per TikTok:
“We’ve started to bring our audience controls feature to creators of short-form video and will expand the feature globally over the coming weeks. To be clear: our policies still fully apply to creators who use this feature, and we will remove content which contains nudity and other violations of our Community Guidelines.”
NSFW?
On TikTok, the 18+ restriction setting for videos isn’t a way for creators to display adult content, as content is still subject to the platform’s regulations and policies. Instead, TikTok sees the option as a way for creators to prevent minors from encountering content that’s more aimed toward adult audiences.
When TikTok rolled out adult-only live streams, it said that the option could be used by creators who want to share comedic content that’s better suited for people who are over 18 years old. Likewise, it can also be used by those who may want to talk about more somber life topics, which does benefit from sharing with a more private and controlled group.
The expansion of the audience controls comes as TikTok previously stated that it wanted to start identifying which content was appropriate for younger audiences vs older ones. On that note, TikTok hinted that it was developing a system to identify and restrict certain content types from being accessed by those who would otherwise fit into the defined audience age bracket. Some users are now reporting that the option is available within the app’s audience control settings.
On top of this, TikTok has also announced that it’s launching the next iteration of its borderline suggestive model, which automatically identifies sexually explicit, suggestive, or borderline content. This next version of TikTok’s regulatory oversight model is said to be more efficient than its previous iteration. These latest advances are part of the app’s broader push to ramp up its safety and control features.
The Wrap
Last year, TikTok rolled out ‘Content Levels’ to help prevent access to more mature and complex themes from reaching teens and other younger users. As part of its recent efforts, TikTok reports that it has prevented teen accounts from viewing over a million overtly sexually suggestive videos within the past 30 days. Child and teen safety is an area where TikTok has recently been consistently scrutinized, so seeing it take additional steps to mitigate these concerns is a small plus. Hopefully, TikTok keeps the habit up.
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