TikTok Announces Youth Council To Improve Safety Measures

TikTok is including one other factor to reassure dad and mom of teenagers who use the app, with the institution of a brand new Youth Council who’ll share the younger person perspective on the important thing points and issues direct with TikTok administration.

TikTok has come beneath scrutiny in a number of areas over the hazard that it poses to children, and the content material that it exposes them to. Which is considered one of a number of explanation why lobbying teams have known as for the app to be banned (and why it has been banned in some markets), however TikTok desires to additionally be certain that it’s listening to teenagers themselves when making its choices.

Which is the place the Youth Council is available in.

As defined by TikTok:

“The Youth Council was created is comprised of 15 teenagers aged between 15 and 18 representing a spread of communities and nations together with the US, UK, Brazil, Indonesia, Eire, Kenya, Mexico, and Morocco. The Youth Council’s priorities for 2024 embrace a concentrate on teen well-being and inclusion to assist guarantee TikTok continues to be a secure and accessible area for younger individuals to point out up as who they’re.”

That, ideally, will allow extra consultant suggestions and perception, which is able to then higher inform TikTok’s product and content material choices.

On the similar time, TikTok has additionally launched new analysis, performed with YouGov, which incorporates insights from over 12k teenagers globally, offering extra knowledge on how they’re approaching these similar issues.

“YouGov in partnership with ConnectSafely, seemed to raised perceive how households have conversations about on-line security. It discovered that almost all discuss no less than weekly about teenagers’ use of on-line providers. Nevertheless, the survey uncovered that simply over two fifths (43%) of US teenagers acknowledge that they keep away from sure conversations in regards to the on-line world, and matters resembling bullying and physique picture had been a number of the most uncomfortable for each teenagers and their dad and mom.”

That are key areas of concern that, ideally, this new Youth Council can deal with, in offering extra context to assist dad and mom and teenagers to handle areas of potential hurt, in a extra cooperative and constructive method.

Certainly, in response to the primary assembly of the Youth Council, TikTok is already planning new training initiatives that target misinformation, AI-generated content material, and extra.

It’s a very good program, which TikTok can even be wanting to make use of as an illustration of its willingness to put money into having a extra optimistic impression.

I imply, that gained’t assist it within the present ban talks, as these are extra targeted on its hyperlinks to the CCP. However together, TikTok’s broader group efforts could assist to alleviate issues across the app.