BERLIN: TikTok, after facing criticism from consumer groups over age-inappropriate content being showed to young teens, is now giving parents two ways of reducing the chances that their children are exposed to mature content in the platform’s feed of videos.

The viral video app is rolling out two new features, one that lets you blacklist certain phrases and hashtags, and the other letting you help adapt the content to the user’s age.

The new functions are designed to extend the level of user control over TikTok’s notoriously addictive and bottomless feed of videos to avoid unwanted and inappropriate content appearing to teenagers.

Unlike on video platforms like YouTube and Vimeo, TikTok’s videos start automatically. Until now, it was not uncommon that TikTok’s users aged 13 and up would see mature content being shown in their video feeds, generated by algorithm.

“TikTok fails to protect children and teenagers from hidden advertising and potentially harmful content on its platform,” the European consumer organisation BEUC wrote in a February complaint to the EU.

“Users are for instance triggered to participate in branded hashtag challenges where they are encouraged to create content of specific products,” the organisation said, pointing to sponsored hashtags pushed to teens.

TikTok now says that it will be possible in the coming weeks to put words or hashtags on a blacklist. This means that videos with these hashtags will no longer be shown on the main For You and Following feeds.

Videos can already be marked as “not interesting”. However, this only means that other videos created by the same user will be skipped.

TikTok admits that “some content may contain mature or complex themes that may reflect personal experiences or real-world events that are intended for older audiences”.

With age restrictions, TikTok now wants to start classifying content in terms of its suitability for a younger audience.

The social media platform says if it detects that a video contains “mature or complex themes” or “fictional scenes that may be too frightening or intense for younger audiences”, it will soon block the post for under-18s.

TikTok says the content blocking system will go live in the next few weeks. TikTok requires new users to provide their date of birth and users must be at least aged 13. If parents install the app themselves on their smartphone, they can activate a mode to accompany their child on TikTok.

 - dpa