After her daughter was exposed to sexually explicit content on the smartphone app TikTok, a mother in New York is warning parents of the platform’s dangers.
Kimberly Viola said a “predator” on TikTok posed as a child at her daughter’s school in order to befriend her, and then sent her 10-year-old daughter “self-inflecting harmful messages.”
“Harmful and abusive things that she just can’t erase from her mind now,” Viola told WKBW-TV.
While TikTok already offers a limited version of the app that doesn’t allow interpersonal messaging or video sharing and commenting for users under 13, developers announced in a recent press release that the app now features a new Family Safety Mode that gives parents additional safety controls.
Family Safety Mode will allow parents to manage screen time, restrict messaging on teen accounts and block inappropriate videos, CNET reported. To set up the parental controls, both a parent and child need to switch on Family Safety Mode in their individual TikTok accounts and link their accounts by scanning a QR code from the parents’ phone screen, according to Business Insider.
Family Safety Mode is currently only available in the U.K., but will roll out in additional areas over the next few weeks, USAToday reported.
In addition to the new parental controls, TikTok developers previously released a “You’re in Control” user safety campaign to educate users on their privacy and internet safety options, as well as the app’s community guidelines.
“When people use TikTok, we know they expect an experience that is fun, authentic and safe,” Cormac Keenan, the company’s head of trust and safety, said in the release.