TikTok Will Ban Teenagers From Using Beauty Filters
TikTok will ban teenagers from using beauty filters amid concerns about the dangerous impact on younger users’ mental health.
In a press release, TikTok announced that it would restrict the use of some beauty filters that allow them to change their facial features for users under the age of 18.
Some of the changes will include preventing under-18s from using certain appearance-altering effects and expanding filter descriptions to specify what they adjust when applied.
The restrictions will apply to TikTok beauty filters — such as “Bold Glamor” — that alter a person’s appearance in a way that makeup cannot.
@glambyflo This is getting scary
Meanwhile, comic filters that are “designed to be obvious and funny” such as animal ear effects like bunny ears or dog noses will be unaffected by the restrictions.
Dr Nikki Soo, TikTok’s Safety and Well-being Public Policy Lead for Europe tells The Verge that the age restrictions for appearance-altering effects will be rolled out globally.
‘A Distorted Worldview’
The changes are being introduced in response to TikTok’s report with the children’s online safety non-profit Internet Matters. The report found that “beautifying filters contributed to a distorted worldview in which perfected images are normalized” and can result in “significant social pressure” to “look a certain way online.”
Last year, the viral “Bold Glamor” filter left TikTok users shocked and concerned about how dangerously realistic it is. The AI-powered filter realistically airbrushes a person’s face, chisels their jawline and cheekbones, plumps their lips, whitens their teeth, and darkens their eyes and eyebrows in real-time.
In the press release, TikTok also announced it was tightening its systems to block users under 13 from the platform. The company is looking into new AI technologies that can detect accounts made by users who are under 13, which is the minimum age permitted to use the platform.
TikTok says that users who have their accounts deleted will be able to appeal “if they think we’ve made a mistake,” and that it removes around six million accounts globally each year that don’t meet its minimum age requirements.
Image credits: Header photo sourced via TikTok/@lianajadee; TikTok/@ros.july; TikTok/@ellaroseee__.
