Tik Tok - The crack cocaine of algorithms that's how one campaigner has described the Addictive quality of TikTok.The Chinese-owned video-sharing app now has more than a billion users worldwide many of them in their teens well on Wednesday Tik Tok announced plans to limit the use by those under 18s to 60 minutes per day it says the measure will be rolled out in the coming weeks but users will have the ability to opt-out and it comes as a powerful U.S congressional committee voted to give the President Biden power.to ban the app on the grounds, it represents a security risk something Tik-Tock vehemently denies well our Tik Tock correspondent Janelle awamori reports the social media platform taking the World storm known for its clever algorithms which get to know what you like very quickly. In fact, it's been downloaded more than three billion times and it draws over 150 million people to it every month across Europe, but it's been announced today that Tik Talk will be setting a 60-minute daily screen time limit in the next few weeks for users under 18. Bangor university did some research and found that it's so popular because the videos are short and snappy keeping you glued to the screen Tik Tock has stressed that there's no right
The amount of screen time, but they consulted with experts at Boston Children's Hospital to set a new 60-minute limit if those under the age of 18 have been on it for an hour, they need to write a passcode to continue using the app. Tick Tock says it's introducing a new feature to help people stay in control of how they use it and that you'd have to opt into the new feature the Chinese owned app has been banned on work devices for those who are employed by the US government and the EU commission but despite this, it continues to reel in young Audiences are one of the world's most popular social media platforms. I wonder how many of those short videos you actually get through in an hour well TikTok in Singapore I started by asking him what impact TikTok probably depends on who your parents are and what they decide because as he quite rightly pointed out. Earlier mark this isn't a compulsory feature you cannot doubt, and if you do decide to opt-out, then Tick Tok will simply give you some gentle prompts to encourage you to reduce your screen time or set your own limits which Tik Tok says works perfectly fine. but it is really hints and suggestions rather than an outright block so it's kind of down to the parents to start enforcing that as we all know there are already software programs out there there are things that you can get online that parents can install on their children's devices to limit their usage of certain websites there, as well already it's worth remembering though that this kind of thing's already being tried in China the government there about a year ago brought in timeline limits for teenage online Gamers about a year or so on and we know that there are all kinds of ways to circumvent those rules and get around those restrictions there. as well so look the sentiment is there from Tick Tock it kind of depends on how strongly they believe in it and how strictly they enforce it as well Nick let's turn now to the future of tick-tock itself .really because President Biden may have a big decision to make if Congress hands in the power to ban people downloading it or using it so far he's not indicated he'll pursue the nuclear option just yet right yeah that's absolutely right and that bill The Tik Tok ban bill it does have some distance to travel yet before it reaches president Biden's desk it's got to get past the house, then it's got to get to the Senate and then President Biden has to make a decision. The Chinese government is already extremely unhappy about that they have called it the prospect of a band they've called it a completely unreasonable uh a complete overreaction there was a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman. Yesterday who said how unsure of itself can the world's top superpower be for it to fear, uh the world's most popular app for young people. so strong words from the Chinese government there but the fear from The U.S government is quite simple really they fit data Securities there's this notion that Tik Tock owned by a Chinese company bite dance could steal data it's like a trojan horse that has access to potentially sensitive information as well Tick Tock can and track the data but whether they use it or whether they use it, in any case, is a completely different discussion so the pressure really ramping up on them