TikTok is now majority owned by non-Chinese stakeholders and has an American majority board — and it’s time for them to prove their chops to parents by offering more transparency and stronger protections for minors.
The app is a mainstay of American teen life, but how it works and who controls it still feels like a mystery. TikTok’s new stakeholders — Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX now own 15% each, while Chinese Bytedance retains just 19.9% of the company — should demand that kids are protected from ultra-personalized algorithms and that their accounts be kept under lock and key.
The stakes are high. Two hundred million Americans are on TikTok, according to the company, and 63% of American teens used the platform as of 2024.
First and foremost, teens should not have ultra-personalized algorithms in their For You Page. It’s so easy to fall down a rabbit hole on social media based on just a little browsing of political posts or dieting content. Next thing you know, you’re consumed by extremist ideology or constantly obsessing about your weight.
When you’re under 18, you’re still figuring out who you are and what you believe. The last thing you need is constant reinforcement of certain ideas by a tailored feed that makes the world shrink around your insecurities or your political predispositions.
To its credit, TikTok only allows users age 13 and older, and it has rolled out a bunch of parental controls over the years — including screen time limits, feed filters, and commenting and messaging controls. Also, content posted by people under 16 isn’t recommended to strangers. Still, they can and should go further.
Strange adults should not be served up anything a minor under 18 is posting — especially if the algorithm somehow suspects that they might like the content of an underage child.
Teen accounts are by default private, but they can be made public by simply switching the settings. There’s no reason why a minor should have a public account.
There’s currently a default 60-minute time limit for teens, but it can be easily disabled. That shouldn’t be the case.
They might even consider shortening the time limit. Chinese youth are reportedly limited to just 40 minutes a day on Douyin, their version of TikTok.
Two years ago, TikTok came under fire when it was revealed that Douyin had a number of protections in place for Chinese minors — including stricter parameters and the promotions of educational and pro-social content — while American teens got a sort of Wild West.
The version of TikTok available here in the US has rightfully drawn criticism for being a bastion of sexy twerking videos, counterproductive mental health information and even eating disorder-related content.
“Skinnytok” was its own corner of the app, before it was cracked down on. A few years back, the FDA had to ask TikTok users to stop cooking chicken in NyQuil, after that took off as a trend on social media a few years back. There were even reports of tweens picking up Tourette’s-like tics from the app.
Of course, not all of this is TikTok’s fault. Kids can be dumb, and it really is a game of whack-a-mole to squelch the latest dangerous trend or the new algo-speak lingo for a banned search term, but the Chinese version of the app did more to control things and protect kids.
TikTok has been operating for years in a nation that’s a foreign adversary, prompting concerns that China had access to the eyes, ears, and hearts of our children through their screens. Hopefully now that concern can be alleviated.
A spokesperson for the TikTok USDS Joint Venture told The Post that they will “continue to make teen safety a top priority,” noting that they have more than 50 preset safety features.
“Knowing that every teen and every family is different, we also continue to offer easy-to-use safety and privacy tools that help parents customize the experience for their teens,” they added.
It’s not just kids and parents who deserve more answers. Now that TikTok is turning a page and letting Americans into their ranks, it’s time for TikTok to err on the side of transparency across the board.
Let all users in on what data is collected about them and how the algorithms work. For all of X’s faults, Elon Musk was right to make the algorithm open source.
No more ambiguity about your privacy. No more suspecting shadow bans, no more suspicion that the thumb of a government or a special interest group is on the scales.
For the sake of kids, teens, parents, Americans and even non-Americans, this new leadership should consider welcoming an independent transparency report.
Tell users what they should know. Be honest. And if some things are ugly, tell us what will change. Transparency is the only way that Big Tech can regain trust from a skeptical public.
