TikTok to set one-hour daily screen time limit for users under 18
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Updated: 5:41 PM CST Mar 2, 2023
We're all guilty of indulging *** little too much screen time. But for anyone with kids at home taking *** break from technology can be *** challenge. Luckily we have Madeline buckley Senior editor at the toy Insider here to suggest some screen free toys. The whole family will love Good morning, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me. So let's start with this place set from one of the most popular preschool tv shows. My niece is obsessed with this. Bluey blue people love Bluey, Why is this such *** great toy? So this is great if you're gonna take that screen free time, kids, many free schoolers already know and love bluey, you have down there as *** figure in this tree. Playset is really gonna encourage imaginative play. It has elements inspired by specific episodes of the show. There's *** little fairy figure. Blue is wearing her flower crown from *** certain episode, but then kids can use the play set and their imaginations to create even more adventures for bluey when you want to get that screen free time. This is so cool. And what's also interesting is you might not think *** three year old might be into something like mindfulness, but that's not the case whatsoever. Oh absolutely. There's no time too early to start thinking about mindfulness and the next set we have is the mindful maze garden pack and this is super budget friendly as well, only $15. And these are double sided, You can actually flip it over, you'll see there's different patterns on each side. There are four different patterns on these tiles and it's intended for kids to trace their fingers around these sensory patterns to learn different breathing techniques. It also comes with *** really detailed parental guides when you're taking that screen free time and really encouraging kids to be mindful and think about how they're feeling. Staying calm is *** fantastic tool for kind of starting those conversations. What about those artists out there? Yeah, the drawers, that was me, pick this up. This is the boogie board scribble in place that we have *** little here, that's the full set with all the tools, but that is the tablet itself. What I love about this is if you see how we have *** nice pattern on there, if you press the button at the bottom right here, yep, fully clears it and just you don't have to hold just push it once the clear button did I put it? Right? Oh sorry, it's at the top, the top one here, it goes, oh there it goes, there it goes, it's amazing, comes with all these great little tools and different textures. But what's great is that there's zero mess and all of these little corners come off to become additional tools so you can have all these great interactive arts and crafts, but without any of the mess, the boogie board and every boogie boards scribble in place. I love that. What about anything that families could do together? Great games games games, especially if you're going for screen free. Can't go wrong with *** board game. And the, what I brought today is Cinderella from Fox mind, this is taking those classic stories that you know, and love in this case Cinderella, taking it into *** play pattern, recognize finding flipping over tiles matching. So you're moving through Cinderella story as you're finding these iconic things, the shoe, the dress, all of that and there's even the clock over here and for each round of the game, you move around the clock and when the clock strikes midnight, the game is over. So it's really bringing in familiar story elements, kids as young as four, you can learn to play this game. And my favorite feature is you can play it alone. So once kids learn how to play, if you want to have my mom, my dad, I got my own exactly, 30 seconds. Great upgrade your classic game and maybe some catch in the backyard. What do we do? Yeah, so this is the new Arrgh be bouncy ball, It is super soft. Another budget friendly option under $10 and this is great if you want to just have *** little extra treat, it's soft so it's not gonna wreck anything indoors, you can grab it and it comes in so many fun, different colors as you can on screen there. Oh, I love that, so good. And of course we also had hot wheels as well as *** pop up tent. I mean you can't go wrong with that big ticket items. Love everybody loves hot wheel cars and tracks. I mean you really can't go wrong there. That's gonna be that big imaginative. Look at that, Super easy to set up and take down in the living room. Not on such *** pleasure to have you here for more information about these toys. You can go to the toy Insider dot com and don't go anywhere guys, we got *** lot more wake up with cheddar coming up right after this quick break. Hold on, let me play this one really quickly.
TikTok to set one-hour daily screen time limit for users under 18
![CNN logo]()
Updated: 5:41 PM CST Mar 2, 2023
TikTok announced Wednesday that every user under 18 will soon have their accounts default to a one-hour daily screen time limit, in one of the most aggressive moves yet by a social media company to prevent teens from endlessly scrolling.Teenage TikTok users will be able to turn off this new default setting, which will roll out in the coming weeks. But the feature change could bolster the digital well-being of younger users by requiring them to opt out of stricter screen time limits rather than clearing the higher bar of opting into them.If the 60-minute limit is reached, users will be prompted to enter a passcode — requiring them to make an active decision to extend their time spent swiping through videos on the app.The move comes after TikTok and other social media platforms have faced years of scrutiny over their impact on young users, including their potential to lead teens down harmful rabbit holes. TikTok is also facing mounting pressure from Washington over security concerns from its ties to China through parent company Bytedance, including renewed discussion of a possible U.S. ban of the short-form video app.Cormac Keenan, TikTok's head of trust and safety, said the company consulted researchers and experts from the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children's Hospital when deciding the time limits for teen users."While there's no collectively-endorsed position on how much screen time is 'too much', or even the impact of screen time more broadly, we recognize that teens typically require extra support as they start to explore the online world independently," Keenan wrote in a blog post.Keenan added that if a teen decides to turn off this new default limit and spends more than 100 minutes on TikTok a day, they will be prompted to set a daily screen time limit for themselves. "In our first month of testing, this approach increased the use of our screen time management tools by 234%," Keenan wrote.Keenan also announced some updates to the app's Family Pairing feature, which allows a parent or caregiver to link their TikTok account to their teen's and set controls. Parents can filter videos with words or hashtags they don't want to appear in their teen's feed, set a custom daily screen time limit for their teen, and set a custom schedule to mute TikTok notifications sent to their teen.Other platforms, including Instagram and Snapchat, have similarly rolled out additional parental controls and features that encourage teens to take a break and set boundaries.
TikTok announced Wednesday that every user under 18 will soon have their accounts default to a one-hour daily screen time limit, in one of the most aggressive moves yet by a social media company to prevent teens from endlessly scrolling.
Teenage TikTok users will be able to turn off this new default setting, which will roll out in the coming weeks. But the feature change could bolster the digital well-being of younger users by requiring them to opt out of stricter screen time limits rather than clearing the higher bar of opting into them.
If the 60-minute limit is reached, users will be prompted to enter a passcode — requiring them to make an active decision to extend their time spent swiping through videos on the app.
The move comes after TikTok and other social media platforms have faced years of scrutiny over their impact on young users, including their potential to lead teens down harmful rabbit holes. TikTok is also facing mounting pressure from Washington over security concerns from its ties to China through parent company Bytedance, including renewed discussion of a possible U.S. ban of the short-form video app.
Cormac Keenan, TikTok's head of trust and safety, said the company consulted researchers and experts from the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children's Hospital when deciding the time limits for teen users.
"While there's no collectively-endorsed position on how much screen time is 'too much', or even the impact of screen time more broadly, we recognize that teens typically require extra support as they start to explore the online world independently," Keenan wrote in a blog post.
Keenan added that if a teen decides to turn off this new default limit and spends more than 100 minutes on TikTok a day, they will be prompted to set a daily screen time limit for themselves. "In our first month of testing, this approach increased the use of our screen time management tools by 234%," Keenan wrote.
Keenan also announced some updates to the app's Family Pairing feature, which allows a parent or caregiver to link their TikTok account to their teen's and set controls. Parents can filter videos with words or hashtags they don't want to appear in their teen's feed, set a custom daily screen time limit for their teen, and set a custom schedule to mute TikTok notifications sent to their teen.
Other platforms, including Instagram and Snapchat, have similarly rolled out additional parental controls and features that encourage teens to take a break and set boundaries.
