TikTok is incorporating a system to filter what users can see based on age and maturity.
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The video-streaming app announced on Wednesday that it was incorporating a “content levels” system in the next few weeks. The new system will allow users to filter content with certain words or hashtags from showing up in their feed and make sure that teenage users are not exposed to mature or explicit content.
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“As we continue to build and improve these systems, we’re excited about the opportunity to contribute to long-running industry-wide challenges in terms of building for a variety of audiences and with recommender systems,” TikTok Head of Trust and Safety Cormac Keenan wrote.
The feature will allow TikTok to prevent users between ages 13 and 17 from being exposed to videos that may contain “mature or complex themes.” If the TikTok algorithm determines that a video includes mature themes, then TikTok Trust and Safety moderators will assign “maturity scores” to the videos, according to TechCrunch. These scores will be applied to content that is reported or that is popular on the platform.
TikTok’s engineers will eventually expand these features to offer filtering options for all users, not just teenagers.
These new content filters will also allow users to bar specific hashtags or words from appearing in its feed. While these filters are not intended to stop highly sensitive content, they may help users better control what they see on their “For You” pages. For example, a user could bar his or her “For You” page from displaying do-it-yourself content after going on a viewing spree of home improvement content.
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The company also said it intends to expand system tests of software that would diversify recommendations to avoid repeatedly exposing users to potentially harmful content such as excessive dieting or fitness content.
TikTok announced incorporating age-appropriate content filter options in the past after a 2021 congressional inquiry into how social media apps use their algorithms to promote eating disorders to younger users. While TikTok has promised to work to stop disturbing content from spreading on its platform, it has failed to do so regularly.
