Parenting a teen's digital life can be daunting, and we often hear that parents and other caregivers feel as though they're playing catch up when it comes to the latest technology and apps their teens use. That's why we regularly speak to parents and teens and work with family and youth experts to develop meaningful ways for parents to support their teens on TikTok. Our aim is to strike a balance between safety and autonomy for teenagers as we work to create a safe and supportive place for self-expression. 

With that in mind, we introced Family Pairing which lets parents link their TikTok account to their teen's to enable a variety of content and privacy settings. We've expanded this feature to give parents greater oversight and families a more robust set of tools to create the TikTok experience that's right for them.  

Using Family Pairing, parents can help guide their teen's browsing experience with the following controls: 

  • Search [NEW]: Decide whether your teen can search for content, users, hashtags, or sounds
  • Screen Time Management: Set how long your teen can spend on TikTok each day
  • Restricted Mode: Limit the appearance of content that may not be appropriate for a general audience in your teen's For You feed

As young people start to build a presence online, we believe it's important to give families tools so parents and teens can set guardrails together. Our expanded Family Pairing feature now includes:

  • Comments [NEW]: Decide who can comment on your teen's videos (everyone, friends, no one)
  • Discoverability [NEW]: Decide whether your teen's account is private (your teen decides who can see their content) or public (anyone can search and view content)
  • Liked Videos [NEW]: Many people enjoy finding new videos to watch that others they follow have also enjoyed, but this control empowers families to decide whether others can see the list of videos your teen has liked
  • Direct Messages: Restrict who can send messages to your teen, or turn off direct messaging completely. With user safety in mind, we also have many policies and controls on messaging. For example, direct messaging is automatically disabled for those under 16, only approved followers can message each other, and images and videos cannot be sent in messages.

Every family is different. Some may choose to use Family Pairing only when their teen starts on TikTok;  others may choose to stay connected to their teen's account for longer; and even without Family Pairing enabled, teens can always take advantage of these tools by selecting them individually through their app settings. Whatever parents and teens decide is right for them, we hope Family Pairing will encourage families to have broader conversations about digital safety.