TikTok just announced that it’s increasing the minimum age requirement for live-streaming in the app, along with adding a new ‘adults-only’ live-stream category and new keyword filtering options for live comments. Combined, the new updates could play a big role in improving the safety of its live-stream offers.
Age Restricted
First up are the new age restrictions for in-app live streaming. As per TikTok:
“Currently, people must be aged 16 or over to host a LIVE. From November 23rd, the minimum age will increase from 16 to 18. As we consider the breadth of our global audience, we already take a graduated approach to the features that our community can access based on their age; younger teens need to be aged 16 or older to access Direct Messaging and 18 or older to send virtual gifts or access monetization features.”
This is a good move. TikTok has already been scrutinized over the ways that it supposedly incentivizes young people to post provocative and potentially risky material to grab viewer attention. Live-streaming takes this to another level, potentially putting more teens at risk. As TikTok notes, it has been forced to reassess its various features and tools over time, ensuring that teens are not unwittingly putting themselves at risk in the app.
To add, TikTok’s also launched a new option that will enable broadcasters to restrict their live streams to ‘adult audiences’. Although this might also see TikTok lean into even more controversial areas with its live broadcasts if it has the license to do so via adults-only streams, TikTok’s current guidelines do include definitive rules against nudity and sex-related content, which TikTok currently has no intention of changing.
Though it is interesting to consider how social platforms could view such, like how recent revelations say that, at one stage, Twitter did consider leaning into the same. TikTok is clearly not taking the same approach, but the addition of adult-only qualifiers could provide an alternate scope.
On another front, TikTok’s also looking to provide more guidance for live broadcasters to help them better moderate stream comments with new reminders that will suggest key terms that they may want to consider adding to their filter list. The updated tool is said to analyze the comment types that a creator has most commonly removed from their streams, then suggests similar words and terms that the host may want to add to their filter list. This could make managing live streams much easier, essentially streamlining the process of filtering nasty comments and keeping the conversation more focused.
Lastly, TikTok has officially announced the expansion of its Multi-Guest feature for TikTok Live, which enables users to broadcast with up to five guests at a time via a panel layout. For brands, it could also provide new ways to showcase or preview their latest products, facilitate creator collaborations, run fan Q&A, show different aspects of your business, and more.
The Wrap
These are some important updates for TikTok’s live-streaming capacity and with the platform still pushing to make live-stream commerce a thing, they could also serve a key role in maximizing take-up and utility, making it a bigger consideration for more eCommerce businesses and influencers in the app.
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