Canada bans TikTok on government mobile devices 1:05
(CNN) --
TikTok announced Wednesday that users under the age of 18 will soon have their default accounts limited to one hour of daily screen time, one of the most aggressive moves yet by a social media company. to prevent teens from staying on the app indefinitely.
However, teen TikTok users will have the ability to turn off this new default setting, which will roll out in the coming weeks.
But the feature change could bolster the digital wellbeing of younger users by requiring them to opt out of or opt out of stricter screen time limits.
Federal agencies have 30 days to ban the use of TikTok on government devices, says the White House
If the 60-minute limit is reached, users will be prompted to enter a passcode, forcing them to make an active decision to extend the time they spend scrolling videos in the app.
The move comes after TikTok and other social media platforms faced years of scrutiny over their impact on young users, including their potential to steer teens toward dangerous content.
TikTok is also facing increasing pressure from Washington over security because of its ties to China through parent company Bytedance, including fresh discussion over a possible US ban on the short-form video app.
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Cormac Keenan, TikTok's head of trust and safety, said the company consulted researchers and experts from Boston Children's Hospital's Digital Wellness Lab when deciding the time limits to set for teen users.
"While there is no collectively supported position on how much screen time is 'too much,' or even on the impact of screen time more generally, we recognize that teens generally require additional support as they begin 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'll be required to set a daily screen time limit for themselves.
“In our first month of testing, this approach increased usage 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 with their teen's and set up controls.
Parents will be able to 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 also implemented additional parental controls and features that encourage teens to take a break and set boundaries.
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