Parents' Ultimate Guide: How to Set Parent Controls on TikTok

TikTok is a video-sharing social platform where kids can easily encounter inappropriate content, including swearing and sexual material. In response to a 2019 FTC settlement, TikTok created a Younger Users experience for kids under 13, offering only curated videos and no posting, searching, or commenting (and no data collection). But full access still requires only the entering of a birth date, so kids can bypass age gates. TikTok's Family Pairing, launched in 2022, lets parents link their accounts and enable Restricted Mode. Notably, Family Pairing sends alerts if kids log out or switch accounts, helping identify when teens are looking to get around parental control settings. As of March 2023, TikTok also sets a 60-minute daily limit for users under 18, requiring a parent's passcode to continue. TikTok's privacy policy shares more details on data use, and under the CCPA, families can protect their personal information and submit a Do Not Sell request to TikTok. Check out our full review of TikTok for more information.

Exposure to mature or harmful content: While scrolling through content, teens can easily encounter sexual material or suggestive dances. Kids are often encouraged to emulate the trends by creating their own versions. Videos regularly include violence, toxic gender representation, and dangerous stunts and trends. Many of the videos include explicit music. Self-harm content is also fed to kids through the highly specific algorithm, alongside eating disorder content and other topics that can challenge kids' mental health.

Communication with strangers: As with Instagram, teens who use TikTok are at risk of being contacted by unfamiliar people through direct messages or comments. Teens can also encounter dangerous situations if they overshare personally identifiable information (PII) when posting videos. If your kid posts content or comments on videos, they can open themselves up to harassment. 

Peer pressure and mental health: With a constant flow of videos, teens are consistently exposed to videos that display unrealistic lifestyles, appearances, or unattainable financial status. Kids may also overfocus on getting a lot of likes, followers, or going viral.

Spending: There are many opportunities for in-app purchases, and a TikTok Shop section where teens can make real purchases with money. They can also purchase virtual "coins" with real currency and use them to buy "gifts" for other creators that can be sent during livestreams, and can be used to buy "diamonds" which can then be cashed out. Influencers can also make money through partnerships and sponsored content, so there is some marketing to kids.

Weak moderation: TikTok does employ human teams to moderate content, but the bulk of this work is done by artificial intelligence, which leads to inconsistent moderation. A lot of content is incorrectly removed, and true violations of the terms of service, like racism, homophobia, and violence, are often not.

Endless scroll and addictive algorithm: TikTok's algorithm is highly tailored to each user's interests. This continuous stream of videos plays automatically, which can make it extremely difficult to moderate screen time.

TikTok challenges: Viral trends called challenges often encourage teens to perform a specific task or mimic a behavior, like a dance or action, using a specific hashtag and sound. While sometimes harmless, some trends can be dangerous because they pressure kids into attempting risky behavior, like drinking chemicals or playing with electrical outlets.

Teen Default Settings

• The default TikTok settings for teens (age 13–17) include:
  • a private account
  • a one-hour daily screen time limit
  • disabled direct messages (when you first start using the app)
  • published videos not pushed to strangers
• Accounts for users 13–15 cannot be suggested for other users to follow.
• Accounts for users 16–17 can enable direct messaging and have their accounts suggested to others. 

You can link your account to your teen's account with Family Pairing. With Family Pairing, parents can access some safety and well-being settings, including screen time limits, customizable algorithm options, comment controls, and more. 

Here's how to set up Family Pairing:

• Parents need their own TikTok account. From your device, go to TikTok's profile settings, select privacy, and navigate to family pairing.
• You will be given an option of a Parent or Teen account. Choose Parent.
• You can have kids connect their accounts by scanning a QR code from their device or by sending the child an invitation link.
• The teen needs to navigate to their own settings, select the Teen account, and tap next. Then scan the QR code and select link accounts.
• Parents can then access the Family Pairing dashboard with the available controls.

Notably, after setting up Family Pairing, parents can:

• Get usage notifications: You can be notified if your teen logs out or switches accounts, which makes it more challenging for them to get around your parental controls. But keep in mind that they can still access TikTok from another device with a different email address.
• Manage their communication preferences: Customize your teen's comment controls or turn off comments entirely. Decide who can send messages or message requests to your teen. Note: Direct messaging is available only to teens age 16 and older.
• Limit the types of content that teens see: You can customize your teen's For You page by selecting keywords you want to be filtered out. But because the filters focus on the descriptions of the posts, it's possible for undesirable content to pass through. The more educational STEM feed is also available in some areas, and you can decide whether to turn it on.
• Customize searches: Turn search on or off. You can also choose whether your teen can search for videos, hashtags, or live videos. You can also decide whether your teen's account appears in recommended follow lists.
• View and block followers: You can see who your teen is following on TikTok, and who follows them, as well as any accounts they've blocked. You can directly block accounts for your teen. Note that your teen can still encounter a blocked account in the multi-host LIVE section, in shared group chats, or if another account chooses to reuse the blocked user's content.
• Adjust screen time: Parents can set daily screen time limits and customize them for each day. TikTok automatically sets a one-hour limit for teens 13 to 17. In the Family Pairing dashboard, you can track monthly screen time and app opens. When kids reach their limit, they need a one-time parent passcode to keep using the app on that day. You can also schedule time away periods that block account access completely.
• Get an overview of your teen's privacy settings: You can determine whether their accounts are public or private, who can view their liked posts, and who can comment on their posts. You can also choose whether people can create content based on what your child has posted, through duets (split-screen simultaneous videos), stitches (videos edited together consecutively), or stories or stickers.
• Manage their notifications: You can also manage your teen's push notification schedule and whether you'd like to mute them entirely.

• Family Center limitations: Even with Family Center linked, parents can't change their teen's password or delete their account. Parents also can't see search history or message content, and they can't see content published by the account unless teens have their account set to public (all minor accounts are automatically set to private) or the parents follow them.
• Blocking limitations: If someone has already blocked your parent account, you won't be able to search for them and block them from connecting with your teen.
• No content alerts: If parents want to get alerts about inappropriate content, the only current option is third-party parental control apps. 

Are there any other automatic features applied to 13- to 17-year-olds' accounts?

• Wind-down feature: For kids under 16, after 10 p.m., their screen will be interrupted with calming music, but kids can just dismiss the interruption and keep scrolling.
• Schedule time away: For teens 13–15, the automatic time away is set from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. For teens 16–17, the automatic time away is set from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. This can be adjusted in Family Pairing.
• Notifications: Push notifications are automatically muted for teens overnight. Additional push notifications can be adjusted on the parent dashboard.
• LIVE ban: Teen accounts are not able to host livestreams themselves, though kids can still join livestreams as viewers unless the content is banned for their age group.

What is the experience for users under 13 with age-appropriate accounts?

There is a view-only experience for kids under 13 years old that offers safer video content in partnership with Common Sense Networks. Family Pairing adds additional safeguards to this experience.

This article was created in collaboration with Sarah Gallagher Trombley, founder of Digital Mom Media. This education platform teaches parents how to navigate technology safely with and for their children through workshops, courses, and personal coaching.