As part of China’s latest crackdown on media exposure for young internet users, TikTok’s Chinese version, called Douyin, will now restrict users under 14 to just 40 minutes of app activity time per day, and only allowing usage between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. on a daily basis. TikTok is for the overseas market while its China-only counterpart is called Douyin and has over 600 million daily active users as of 2021. Aside from geographical restrictions, the biggest difference between the two versions happens to be content moderation, with Douyin enforcing a tight control over the kind of content that appears on the platform, thanks to the strict guidelines that have been put in place by the government.
However, restricting the app activity for teenage users is not the only form of “online wellness measure” that has been implemented in the country in recent times. Just a few weeks ago, China’s National Press and Publication Administration enforced a new rule that restricted anyone under the age of 18 to just 3 hours of gaming time each week. More importantly, the target demographic is barred from playing games during weekdays, and can only indulge in them on weekends and holidays. Earlier, the limit was 90 minutes of games on weekdays and three hours on weekends. But it’s not just games, as the country has recently been on a vicious crackdown cycle to regulate big names such as Alibaba Group, Tencent, JD.com, and ByteDance, which is the parent company of TikTok and Douyin.
In an official blog post, ByteDance has revealed that all users with a verified identity who are below 14 years of age will automatically enter ‘Youth Mode’ on the social media app. ‘Youth Mode,’ in turn, limits the app usage time of users to just 40 minutes each day. Plus, there is a fixed time window — between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. each day— in which users below the age of 14 can surf the platform. Douyin implements a real-name authentication system for users in China for implementing Youth Mode, a tactic that is used to a much larger extent for games such as a facial recognition system for tracking game activity. ByteDance is also encouraging parents to help authenticate the identity of their wards below the age of 14.
With The Right Approach, This Might Actually Work Everywhere
In Youth Mode, the focus will be on presenting content that focuses more on cultivating scientific interest, imparting cultural and historical knowledge, and giving virtual tours of museums to name a few. The core focus of this strategy is to clamp down on what government officials describe as 'internet addiction.' However, something like a Youth Mode is also an effective method to shield children from harmful and age-inappropriate content, as well as negative interactions with strangers. And if that sounds familiar, it’s because Instagram has been struggling with the aforementioned issues for years and has also launched multiple new features to combat it.
While the exact figure of 40 minutes for using an app like TikTok (Douyin in China) is debatable, what can’t be argued is the benefit of reducing the social media activity of young users. Multiple independent studies — and Facebook's own internal research — have proved that Instagram usage is behind mental health issues for teens due to its toxicity, and it has also been linked to body acceptance issues as well as eating disorders. A dedicated social media app for kids isn’t the best course of action, but limiting usage time definitely sounds like a smart move for teens. And this applies to not just Instagram, but all other popular names such as Snapchat, Facebook, and Twitter.
Source: Douyin / WeChat