TikTok plans to ban underage users from using filters that artificially change their appearance, daily.afisha.ru reports with reference to The Guardian.
The new rules will affect popular visual effects such as Bold Glamour, which permits you to radically transform your face in ways that are not possible with regular makeup. However, comic filters with funny masks will remain available. The company unveiled the changes during a security conference at its European office in Dublin.
The effectiveness of such restrictions will depend on users being honest in indicating their age, which is usually problematic.
The decision is dictated by serious concerns about the psychological well-being of young people. Experts note that the constant use of beauty filters can form a distorted idea of their own appearance in teenagers, especially girls.
Many young people admitted that after using such effects, their own faces seem unattractive to them.
At the same time, TikTok is strengthening its mechanisms to counteract the registration of users under 13. By the end of this year, it plans to test new automated systems based on machine learning that will be able to identify violators of age restrictions.
The move comes as the UK tightens its grip on underage social media use, with the platform currently removing around 20 million underage accounts worldwide each quarter.
