TikTok Parental Controls Update: Search, Comments & Privacy

TikTok has announced enhancements to its Family Pairing feature, providing parents with more options to oversee their teenager’s account and safeguard their privacy on the platform. These new capabilities empower parents to establish account privacy settings for their teens, regulate the visibility of their saved videos, manage commenting permissions on videos, and determine whether the teen can utilize TikTok’s search functionality.

The initial launch of Family Pairing in April enabled parents to connect their accounts with their teen’s, allowing them to manage screen time, direct messaging, and the activation of “Restricted” mode—a setting that filters the TikTok feed to display only more carefully reviewed content.

The current update introduces a wider array of parental control options. Parents can now enable or disable their teen’s access to the app’s search bar, preventing them from searching for content, users, hashtags, and sounds. This could be a significant restriction for frequent TikTok users, potentially hindering their ability to find new content creators and trends or to produce their own material.

Parents are also now able to control whether other users can view their teen’s “Liked Videos” on their profile. Furthermore, they can specify who is permitted to comment on their teen’s videos, choosing from “everyone,” “friends,” or “no one.”

Finally, parents can switch their teen’s account from public to private. A private account limits visibility to only those individuals the teen approves, which is often a sensible choice for younger users. However, teens may prefer public accounts in the hope of increasing video views and achieving viral status.

The Family Pairing feature is intended for use by parents with children aged 13 and above. For younger users in the U.S., TikTok provides a separate, view-only mode compliant with COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act), known as TikTok for Younger Users.

Families can select the parental controls that best suit their needs and determine the duration for which they will be applied. This functionality sets TikTok apart from other popular teen social media platforms, such as Snapchat and Instagram, which do not offer similar parental control features.

These updates are being released during a period of uncertainty for TikTok, as potential bans in the U.S. remain a possibility.

The company confirms that the new parental controls are being deployed to all users globally.