TikTok has announced a suite of new features and technologies designed to help viewers customise their viewing preferences and maintain a safe experience on the app.
In addition to existing options, such as the ‘not interested’ feature that automatically skips certain videos, users will now be able to automatically filter out videos with specific hashtags or words included.
TikTok also revealed its attempts to reduce recommendations for certain topics that had the potential to be problematic when viewed in large quantities, such as dieting, extreme fitness, sadness, and other well-being topics. The end goal of this testing is to create unique For You feed experiences for each user while avoiding potentially negative experiences.
Another goal of TikTok’s is to further improve the experiences of younger audiences on the app by reducing access to mature or complex themes in the videos recommended. Previously, this has been maintained by the community guidelines, but a new system is set to be introduced that will allocate maturity scores to videos of certain content types.
Much like film and television age ratings, these maturity scores are designed to stop teenagers from accessing material that could be deemed too mature, either relating to real world experiences that younger audiences won’t understand or complex themes that aren’t appropriate. There will also be additional settings designed to protect teenagers on the app rolled out in the coming months.
Finally, TikTok conceded that the overall goals of the updates and the direction the platform is headed in are complex, and reinstated their continued pledge to listen to feedback from community members and the Asia Pacific Advisory Council.
