TikTok: will parents have more control over their children’s accounts?

As announced by TikTok, a new feature for parents and children who use the platform has been available since July 30. The new option, called “Family Pairing,” will enable parents to exert greater control over their children’s accounts, with new tools to customise settings to suit the needs of teenagers and their families.
“The latest updates support young people using our app and provide families with more tools to have conversations about online experiences, safety, and privacy,” the Chinese platform said.

What exactly will change?

The “Family Pairing” feature is designed to allow parents to see what their children are posting on the platform. “One of the features we are testing is automatic notification to parents when their child posts a video, story, or photo that is visible to other TikTok users,” the company said. This is intended to help parents control the content their children post.

According to TikTok, it is also about teaching children about privacy and online safety settings. “The ‘Family Pairing’ option can be a starting point for parents to talk to their teenagers about how they use TikTok (…) without infringing on their independence,” the platform argues.

The “Manage Topics” feature, which previously allowed users to customise content to their preferences based on selected categories, has been expanded — parents will now be able to see what topics their child has chosen.

An additional tool within the Family Pairing feature will be the ability to block specific accounts on behalf of children. Blocked accounts cannot interact with the teenager, and the content they publish will not appear in their feed.

The Achilles’ heel of the European Union

The TikTok platform currently has over 159 million users in the EU. Data from the US shows that the largest percentage (25%) of users there are aged between 10 and 19.

It is also worth noting that TikTok takes up a lot of our time. Looking at the above data, the average user spends 42 hours and 47 minutes per month on the platform.

According to a report prepared by Oxford Economics, in 2023, the platform contributed to a €4.8 billion increase in GDP in five EU countries (Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands).

However, the challenge, especially for the European Union and its Member States, is the collection of data by the platform, including the collection of features and functions related to video recordings, images, audio recordings, metadata, and information about usage itself.

An additional concern is whether TikTok transfers data directly to China, which could directly expose users and thus constitute a violation of EU law, including the Digital Services Act (DSA). In response to concerns about the Chinese government potentially gaining access to data, some countries and organisations, including the EU, banned the use of the TikTok app on work devices in 2023.

The European Commission has launched several investigations into the platform, including whether TikTok may have violated the DSA (in February 2024). In May, the Commission found that TikTok does not provide the necessary information about the content of advertisements, the users they target, or who paid for them.

Is TikTok meddling in European politics?

In December, the European Commission launched proceedings against TikTok over allegations of manipulation of political advertising and paid political content, which would constitute a violation of the DSA.

Specifically, this relates to the presidential elections in Romania in December 2024. “Outgoing Romanian President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence information showing that nearly 800 TikTok accounts, created in 2016 by Russia, were reactivated in November to support presidential candidate Călin Georgescu,” the EC said in a report.

“About 25,000 accounts were activated two weeks before the first round of the presidential election,” the publication reads.