Children in China will now have their time on Douyin, the version of TikTok specifically for China, limited to just 40 minutes per day.
This is part of a new feature added to the app known as Youth Mode. This feature will seemingly also curate educational content for teens 14 years old and younger.
In order for this restriction to be activated, users must have registered with their real name, a process ByteDance is now urging parents to complete
As mentioned, users 14 and younger will only be able to browse Douyin for 40 minutes and only between 10PM and 6AM. The content has also reportedly been curated with science experiments, exhibitions at museums and other educational content.
In addition to the Youth Mode, ByteDance is also launching a bug bounty programme in a bid to prevent kids from circumventing the protections. Unlike other bug bounties, ByteDance is offering snitches a 2 000 yuan “book card” rather than a cash prize which is odd.
These strict rules have been implemented as a way to reign in internet addiction in China. While the 40 minute per day time limit is extreme it’s not as extreme as the gaming restriction China recently implemented.
New rules announced in August restrict teens under 18 years old to just three hours of gaming a week on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
Things are getting rather restrictive for children in China but if digital addiction is as big of a problem as the government states then these restrictions are understandable.
[Via – The Next Web]
