Exploring the relationship between policy changes at major platforms and user experience: how the Digital Services Act results in deep changes in platform user experience (UX)
The Senate Judiciary Committee gave a group of prominent social media CEOs a bipartisan thrashing on Wednesday, pressing them on alleged shortcomings related to the safety of young people on their platforms.
According to a survey of 1,453 U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 conducted Sept.26, 2023, nearly 1 in 5 teens say they are on TikTok almost constantly. Over 63% teens se TikTok and over 50% teens use TikTok more than once a day.
Said Alex. The 22 years old mom of a 3-month-old told me this when I showed her baby clips on TikTok. Alex knew her baby would stop crying immediately when watching TikTok, but she wants to keep her child away from the app until he is older than 15 years old.
"I personally don't want him to use TikTok this early, He is too young and some videos on there could be misleading for him."
TikTok is listed as a 12+ age restricted app in the app store, and it provides different experiences for different age groups.
Users can view family friendly FYP (For You Page) content and like videos.
Users cannot post public videos, search content, or interact with other users.
Users can view family friendly FYP content, search, and interact with other users and videos if allowed by guardians in family pairing mode.
Users cannot access TikTok shops or livestreams.
If teens intentionally search up user accounts that post adult-facing contents, TikTok would still show these contents to under 18 users.
Users have access to all TikTok features.
Users can become guardians of under 18 users through Family Pairing.
Guardian could click into the teen's account they wish to manage, and select Content preferences.
Guardian selects Filter video keywords to access currently filtered keywords.
Guardian clicks on "Add keyword" to add filter video keywords to the list.
The guardian could enter keywords they wish to be filtered from For You / Following video feeds on the teen's account.
The added keywords would now filter out all the videos containing such words from the teen's feeds.
Guardian could proceed to add multiple keywords they wish to be filtered out and toggle if they want teen to see the keywords.
Allow guardians to enter multiple keywords at once, separating each by commas or semicolons.
Provide suggestions for keywords based on common concerns or trending topics related to youth safety.
Group keywords into bundles according to their categories such as "Violence", "Explicit Content", guardians could 1-click select the entire bundle.
In person chat between teens and their guardians could help address concerns and resolve misunderstandings.
Teens could submit their dispute along with explanation for why they belive the ban should be lifted.
Teens could appeal through an interface that would pass to their primary and secondary guardians, the guardians would then vote on if they would lift the ban.
Guardians can choose from pre-defined categories such as "Explicit Language and Profanity" or "Adult Content," making it simple to apply broad filters based on their concerns. These bundles are customizable, allowing guardians to edit each bundle and add or delete keywords to tailor the filtering to their family's preferences and values.
Teens can choose from different types of appeals such as "I want to see xx content," "I want more screen time," "I want to message others," and more. For example, if a teen is restricted from viewing "Astrology" content, they can select "I want to see xx content" and specify "Astrology" as the content they wish to access. After providing necessary details, teens can submit their appeal to their linked guardian for review.
Guardians will have access to a list of appeals submitted by their linked teen's account, categorized based on appeal types and details. Guardians can review each appeal individually, considering factors such as the teen's reasoning, appropriateness, and family guidelines. Based on their assessment, guardians can choose to grant the appeal and adjust restrictions accordingly or dismiss the appeal while providing feedback or explanations to the teen.
