A New Feature on TikTok: The App is now “rating” content, like for movies

TikTok is now experimenting with a content rating system, which isn’t very different from the G, PG, PG-13, R, or NC-17 rating systems for movies. The aim is to keep suggestive or mature content from reaching adolescents who use the app. 

A lot of people have criticised the social networking site recently because of the type of content it exposes its younger viewers to. To be more specific, the US authorities recently issued a warning to TikTok for its role in the online sale of pharmaceuticals that has resulted in a number of fatal overdoses. 

Several times this year, lawmakers in the UK have talked about the idea of using age verification to stop people from getting too much bad content. In October of last year, TikTok told the Senate Commerce Committee that it was working on systems that would serve up content based on “age-appropriateness or family comfort.”

There are now a lot of changes that the social networking platform has made that are meant to protect its users, especially those who might be exposed to unhealthy content or be abused online. A report by Protocol reveals the social site is using PG-13 filters to “keep content with “strong profanity or adult innuendo” out of young users’ feeds”. The content rating won’t show up next to the video itself. Instead, it will be used to categorise videos before they are suggested on the feed. Videos deemed “overtly mature” for an adult audience will be blocked from appearing in the timelines of users in susceptible age groups. 

Video removal was made more efficient in July of 2021 when TikTok made the process more automated. Its algorithm looked for content that was offensive in sexual activity, violence, or graphic content that could be especially harmful to TikTok’s younger users.

TechCrunch’s report reveals that users will be able to specify the level of content maturity they want to see within the app. Using the “Family Pairing” parental control feature, parents and guardians will be able to make that decision on behalf of adolescents. Instagram’s algorithm currently supports users’ choice of the type of media they want to see and how it suggests content in the news feed. 

Also in development for the TikTok app, is a user-facing system that will allow content creators to specify whether a video is intended solely for an older audience or can be enjoyed by both adults and teenagers. 

In the past, YouTube has been accused of censoring videos that were deemed inappropriate by the site’s automated systems. Notably, videos with LGBTQ+ themes or elements deemed inappropriate by Western cultural standards but acceptable elsewhere have faced these issues. 

Content rating is being tested by a very small group of TikTok users right now, but there is no word on when it will be used on a wider scale.