Surely, human beings are the smartest species in the world’s history, but that hasn’t been enough to keep them from making mistakes. This very dynamic has, in fact, popped up on the surface time and time again, therefore forcing us to look for some sort of a defensive cover. We will, on our part, find that cover once we bring dedicated regulatory bodies into the fold., You see, having a well-defined authority within each and every area was a game-changer, as concealed a lot of our mistakes right away. However, the whole utopia was also pretty short-lived, and if we are being honest, it was all because of technology. Technology, soon after arriving on the scene, would create such a layered reality that everyone will find themselves having an unprecedented shot at exploiting other people’s missteps. This naturally wasted no time in overwhelming our regulatory industry, and consequentially, sending us back to square one. Nevertheless, going by some recent developments, we can see that we must stay prepared for another major power shift. In case the previous evidence isn’t enough, you can even look at a whole new piece of testimony, which has emerged from TikTok’s latest move.
TikTok has officially announced a set of updates that are supposed to help users in filtering out mature and problematic content. According to certain reports, the social media giant is introducing a major tweak in its viewing experience, ensuring that the users see fewer videos about topic that “may be fine as a single video but potentially problematic if viewed repeatedly,” These topics include dieting, extreme fitness, depression, anxiety, and many other sensitive subjects. Apart from it, TikTok is also bringing out a refined thematic maturity system, which will allocate a special “maturity score” to videos potentially containing mature or complex themes. As per Cormac Keenan, head of trust and safety at the company, the goal is “to help prevent content with overtly mature themes from reaching audiences between ages 13-17.” The move comes amidst a lot of scrutiny on the social media companies in terms of what they are doing to protect young users. While these concerns have always been there, they reached another level when Francis Haugen, a former Facebook employee, shared certain internal documents to expose the company’s hugely detrimental impact on the kids. TikTok, however, has faced its own fair share of backlash due to all the questionable challenges that killed several young users.
For future, TikTok plans to compliment the newly-released features through more detailed filters that are “focused on further safeguarding the teen experience”.