TikTok To Introduce Mindfulness Tool For Teenage Users

To help teens unwind before bed and step away from the app’s feed, TikTok is launching a new mindfulness feature.

If a user under the age of sixteen is on TikTok after 10 p.m., the video-sharing platform’s Wind Down feature will automatically activate, disrupting the For You stream with a full-screen takeover and playing soothing music.

The social media behemoth announced that it will start testing more meditation activities as part of the feature in the upcoming weeks. It is part of a larger update from TikTok and is said to be the first time a social media network has sent mindfulness tools straight to users.

It also has new parental control tools, such as Time Away, which lets parents prevent their teens from using TikTok at certain hours, like during school, family dinners, the evening, or holidays.

Parents were allowed to set screen time limits in hours and overnight on TikTok and other social media sites up to now, but not in precise time slots during the day. The worldwide head of outreach and partnerships, trust, and safety at TikTok, Val Richey, stated that the company aims to provide “ongoing support” for the wellness of teenagers.

“That means exploring new ways to help guide teens in developing healthy digital habits,” he told the PA news agency. It can’t just be about blocking and preventing. It has to be about education and development.

“The idea is based on some research that we’ve reviewed around meditation helping improve sleep quality, and certainly, I think there’s a lot of people who that will resonate with.

“We want to push the envelope a little bit and try being creative – it’s not something that we’ve seen before.”

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In addition to allowing parents to link their accounts with their kids’ and keep an eye on their usage, the update to TikTok’s Family Pairing tools gives parents more visibility into their kids’ TikTok networks, allowing them to see who their kids have blocked and who follows them.

According to Mr. Richey, the Family Pairing tools are designed to let parents keep an eye on their kids while yet allowing them to be independent.

“This is exactly the balance that we’re always trying to strike between giving teens some agency and some privacy, but also helping make sure that parents have enough visibility into what their teens are doing, and providing an environment where important conversations can happen,” he told PA.

“We want to be collaborative in how teens develop healthy digital habits and also interact with their parents.”