Douyin, the Chinese version of the short video application TikTok, has reportedly added a new feature that will limit users in China under the age of 14 to daily usage of 40 minutes, as confirmed by its parent company ByteDance.
The youth mode of the app is on track with the new restrictions imposed by the Chinese government on access to video games for young teens. The company stated that children under 14 years will be able to use the app between 6AM and 10PM, but they would not be able to access it beyond that time window.
The regulations will be applicable to authenticated under-14 users and ByteDance has encouraged parents to assist their children in completing the process of real-name authentication or activate youth mode when reminded by the app.
The Government of China has been focusing on curbing the time consumed by Chinese teenagers on the internet, which is considered harmful. Last month, the government’s National Press and Publication Administration released new regulations which limit Chinese citizens under the age of 18 to play online games only on holidays, weekends, and Fridays between 8PM and 9PM.
The administration has directed platforms like Douyin along with game companies to use the process of real-name identification for all of its users. It requires the users to enter a phone number and other types of identification to access online games.
The partially-state-owned tech company has stated that the content accessible to users under youth mode will now comprise educational material like museum and gallery exhibitions, interesting popular science experiments, historical insight explanations, along with beautiful scenery across China.
For the record, ByteDance Ltd., established in 2012, is an internet tech company that is based in Beijing. The company was founded by Zhang Yiming and Liang Rubo.
Source credits:
https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/19/22682219/tiktok-parent-bytedance-limits-kids-douyin-app-china