TikTok has announced a couple of new updates to its Community Guidelines as it looks to improve and alter its approach with regards to user safety, combating rising concerns that stem from certain dangerous TikTok clips and challenges.
The updates come after a range of reports about users suffering significant injuries after attempting dangerous viral trends. Advice from various psychological and behavioral experts was also factored in, highlighting TikTok’s impact on an overwhelmingly young audience.
TikTok Challenge PPEs
TikTok says that it’ll be notifying all its users about the updates through the app over the coming weeks. Meanwhile, it’s best to take a look at a couple of specific focus elements to better understand these upcoming changes.
TikTok starts by updating its rules around challenges, specifically those that would facilitate the development or patronage of dangerous behaviors, such as in the case of suicide hoaxes, to reduce the reach and exposure of such trends.
TikTok explains:
“Content that encourages or promotes suicide or self-harm hoaxes is not allowed. This includes alarming warnings that could cause panic and widespread harm. We will remove such warnings, while allowing content that seeks to dispel panic and promote accurate information about such hoaxes.”
Last November, TikTok conducted a large-scale study to assess the impact of several harmful viral trends that led to the substantial harm of several users that chose to participate in these otherwise mindlessly dangerous “challenges”. One of the key findings shows that even warnings about suicide hoaxes can cause angst, gradually building up various fears.
“The research showed how warnings about self-harm hoaxes – even if shared with the best of intentions – can impact the well-being of teens by treating the self-harm hoax as real.”
Also last year, a 10-year old girl died after taking part in the ‘Blackout Challenge’, which has users holding their breath for as long as they can until they actually pass out. Heaven-knows-why some people would even find the idea as ‘trendy’; obviously, most people don’t know the biomechanics as to why we would ever fall unconscious. This is but one of the many examples of downright stupid challenges on TikTok that’s most likely to end up getting your either hurt or killed, which makes this update crucial as it’ll see TikTok remove more of these kinds of content.
To add, TikTok is also launching a new push to highlight danger and risk in trending clips, having users rethink participation in potentially dangerous challenges. Though this is more of a friendly reminder, as anyone who’s in their right mind should obviously know if a certain challenge would look risky or not.
We get a couple of other inclusive updates such as an expanded approach to eating disorders (and related concerns), as well as updated rules about gender and sexual partity, specifically around misgendering and misogyny. The cherry on top has to be TikTok’s expansion on elements around unauthorized use, including new regulations about spamming, crawling, and other exploits on the platform.
The Wrap
It’s an update about the protocols and stipulations on user safety, you don’t get more specific than that. What’s said above pretty much sums it all up, so what this update is all about really has something to do with improving TikTok user safety and wellbeing, which is something that should be part of any social platform’s core function. At the very least, it’s good to see TikTok be proactive when it comes to addressing concerns regarding its use. While it can’t totally handle all takedowns and identify what would be a harmful trend on its own, giving users additional capacity to stay protected and avoid such things is the next best thing.
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