TikTok to Restrict Beauty Filters for Teens Under 18 For Mental Health Impact

Highlights

• TikTok will restrict beauty filters for users aged 13 to 17 globally.
• Aiming to reduce access to appearance-altering effects that can harm self-esteem.
• Research has shown beauty filters can negatively impact teens’ self-esteem by setting unattainable beauty standards.
• TikTok will also implement automated systems to detect under-13 users.

In the last decade, social media has captured our lives in a way humans have never experienced ever before.

This has probably teenagers the most and several studies have highlighted how social media has a negative impact on teens’ mental health.

One big impact has been setting unrealistic beauty standards and encouraging youngsters towards harmful practices to achieve it. 

TikTok is finally taking a major step to change things for teens on its platform by restricting beauty filters for users under 18.

The restriction aims to reduce access to appearance-altering effects and will be implemented globally.

The company announced the changes during a safety forum at its European headquarters in Dublin.

Research shows that beauty filters can harm self-esteem, especially among young people. Many users don’t realise they’re comparing their real appearance to heavily edited images.

Worse, using these filters themselves can leave them feeling dissatisfied with their natural looks.

Dr Jasmine Fardouly, a body image expert at the University of New South Wales, explained, “It’s promoting a beauty ideal that’s not attainable for you. It’s not attainable for anyone, really, because nobody looks like that. Everybody’s faces are being made to look the exact same way. The fact that it’s harder to know that it’s a filter may potentially be worse for the promoting of those ideals.”

According to The Guardian report on this, the new restrictions mean users aged 13 to 17 will no longer be able to use filters that enlarge eyes, plump lips, or smooth skin tone. The report says, “Under-18s will, in the coming weeks, be blocked from artificially making their eyes bigger, plumping their lips and smoothing or changing their skin tone. The restrictions will apply to filters – such as “Bold Glamour” – that change children’s features in a way that makeup cannot […]”

TikTok is also stepping up efforts to enforce its age restrictions. The platform plans to trial new automated systems using machine learning to detect under-13 users trying to bypass age limits.

TikTok’s Child Safety Public Policy Lead Chloe Setter said, “We’re hoping that this will give us the ability to detect and remove more and more quickly.”

Although under-13s are officially prohibited from using TikTok, the platform has been often accused of not doing enough to prevent younger users from accessing the app.

These changes are seen as a response to increasing pressure from UK and EU legislation. Andy Burrows, CEO of the Molly Rose Foundation, which focuses on suicide prevention, said, “It will not escape anyone’s attention that these shifts are being announced largely to comply with EU and UK regulation. This makes the case for more ambitious regulation, not less.”

FAQs

Q1. What new restriction is TikTok implementing for users aged 13 to 17?

Answer. TikTok is restricting beauty filters for users aged 13 to 17 globally, reducing access to appearance-altering effects to improve self-esteem and mental health among teens.

Q2. Why is TikTok restricting beauty filters for teens?

Answer. Research shows that beauty filters can harm self-esteem by setting unrealistic beauty standards and encouraging dissatisfaction with natural looks, especially among young people.

Q3. How will TikTok enforce the new age restrictions and comply with regulations?

Answer. TikTok plans to use automated systems with machine learning to detect under-13 users trying to bypass age limits and comply with UK and EU regulations.

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