TikTok recently announced that they will allow people to ban users under 18 from viewing their live streams. However, they are currently testing the new setting with specific users.
Users who have access to the new option can navigate to their settings and toggle the mature themes button to restrict their Live to adults. The app notes that “only viewers 18 and above can see your Live if you turn it on. Once you turn on the setting, TikTok will notify you that Live videos tagged 18+ will still be removed if they violate the app’s community guidelines, which include policies on nudity, sexual activity and violence.
The aim of the new setting is to hide content from children that may be aimed toward an adult audience or might be boring for them. Still, all users are expected to follow the app’s policies and are not allowed to post adult content.
It’s important to note that TikTok’s new 18+ restriction setting for livestreams isn’t a way for users to broadcast adult content, as the content is still subject to the app’s policies. Instead, it’s a way for creators to prevent minors from encountering content that’s aimed toward an adult audience or may be uninteresting to them.
TikTok said it wanted to cater appropriate content to children versus teens and adults.
We’ve heard directly from our creators that they sometimes have a desire to only reach a specific older audience. So, as an example, maybe they’re creating a comedy that has adult humor, or offering kind of boring workplace tips that are relevant only to adults. Or maybe they’re talking about very difficult life experience. So, given those varieties of topics, we’re testing ways to help better empower creators to reach the intended audience for their specific content.
Tracy Elizabeth – Head of Issue Policy and Safety
Elizabeth noted that TikTok wouldn’t go as far as having displayable ratings or labels on TikTok videos, which would allow people to see the age-appropriate nature of a given piece of content at a glance. Instead, TikTok plans to rely on categorization on the back end, which will lean on having creators tag their own content in some way. The new 18+ restriction setting is an example of this idea being put into practice.
