TikTok's Family Pairing feature let parents have control on kids' profile

Short video-sharing platform TikTok on Thursday introduced 'Family Pairing' feature, which allows parents to have control over their children activities on the app, by linking their own account with their kids, with a caveat that children have to approve this.

The move will give parents more control over the user activity of their kids as they can set controls on 'Screen Time Management', 'Direct Messages' and 'Restricted Mode'.

"Family Pairing enhances our suite of safety tools and complements our work to provide greater access to product features as users reach key milestones for digital literacy," the company said in a statement on Friday.

"It is part of our continued work toward providing parents better ability to guide their teen's online experience while allowing time to educate about online safety and digital citizenship," it added.

However, parents will still have to get their kids' approval to agree to have their accounts linked under the new system.

According to The Verge, once two accounts are linked, parents can control kids settings from their own phone. Earlier, parents had to set these restrictions within the app on their kid's device.

To set it up, parents need to scan a QR code inside the digital wellbeing section of their kid's account. Also, kids can disable the account linking anytime they want.
 

In addition, TikTok will disable Direct Messages feature for users under the age of 16. This update goes live on April 30.

Owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, TikTok is one of the fastest growing mobile video sharing platforms that has a huge subscriber base in South Asian countries, including India.

The coronavirus pandemic, which has confined people in homes due to lockdown imposed by governments of various countries, has also led to sharp rise in its popularity.

According to analytics site SensorTower, the app saw 65 million worldwide downloads in March. The app is nearing a billion users, though the company has not released official data.