TikTok releases Footnotes and other safety tools
Why it matters: The updates underscore TikTok's ongoing push to promote digital well-being amid intensifying scrutiny from parents and regulators.
"People love TikTok. They come to entertain themselves, to laugh, to discover, and everything I know about safety is in order to have that joy and that fun, you have to feel safe," Suzy Loftus, head of trust and safety for TikTok U.S. Data Security, told Axios.
Driving the news: The updates, presented Tuesday at TikTok's New York office, span community-driven content labeling, parental controls and creator support tools.
Footnotes is now live in the U.S. The feature, which launched as a test in April, lets vetted users suggest written context for videos, similar to Community Notes on Meta and X.
Family Pairing can now alert parents when their teen uploads content, show more of their teen's settings like managing topic selections and privacy and lets parents block accounts on their teen's behalf.
Well-being Missions gamify learning about digital well-being by letting users earn badges by completing tasks.
Creator Care Mode automatically filters out offensive comments and users whose comments are reported, disliked or deleted.
Other creator tools include bulk muting words or phrases during livestreams, Creator Inbox for better managing messages, Creator Chat Rooms with moderators and Content Check Lite for previewing For You feed eligibility before upload.
The big picture: TikTok has expanded its safety features over the years as it grew to reach about half the U.S. population. It introduced Family Pairing in 2020 and more time limit features for teens in 2023.
The latest updates build on that foundation and offer more proactive, AI-powered tools designed to reduce the burden of combating bad behavior.
Summer Lucille, @juicybodygoddess on TikTok, said at Tuesday's event she values the ability to delete comments in bulk as someone who works with the plus-size community.
"I deal also with a very vulnerable group, teenage girls who are plus size, so I watch my comments like a hawk," she said. "I want to make sure that I protect them .... so block, block, block."
Yes, but: Angie Drobnic Holan, director of the International Fact-Checking Network — a panelist at Tuesday's event — praised the tools but also stressed the importance of multiple forms of moderation.
"I have not heard TikTok say this, but some other platforms have suggested that they can turn their entire content moderation effort over to a public notes program, and we don't believe that's true," Holan said.
What's next: TikTok previewed a new well-being experience where users can view their screen time and access calming features such as breath exercises and nature sounds.
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