CHARLOTTE — Popular social media app TikTok is rolling out a series of tools called ‘Balanced Digital Habits’ to allow parents to watch and control their children’s usage and access.
The features will allow parents to block app access at certain times and check who their children follow, and who follows them.
Some parents, like Bernice Honeycutt, the parent of an 8th grader, said these features would help them have control over their child’s usage. Even if their child is more familiar with the technology than them.
“That’s wonderful — if you can get your child to let you have their phone long enough to put that on there,” Honeycutt said. “My child’s more savvy with phones than I am. And every time I put monitors on it, she knows how to remove them.”
One feature is called ‘Time Away.’ It allows parents to block their kids from being on the app at certain times.
Another is called ‘Family Pairing,’ which allows parents to check who their kids follow, who follows their kid, and who their kid has blocked.
Dr. Alok Patel at Stanford Children’s Health said there could be several benefits to this.
“It gives families even more transparency and potentially protects kids from following accounts that might provide misinformation, bad information or cyberbullying,” Dr. Patel said.
TikTok is also enacting a wind-down feature for teens under the age of 16. This feature initiates a full-screen takeover after 10 p.m. It interrupts the user’s feed with calming music and encourages the user to be mindful of the time.
But TikTok is reporting that even for those who use the feature, their kids are continuing to use the app.
Honeycutt said TikTok needs to provide a class to parents on how the new safeguards work.
“TikTok needs to teach parents how to do these things to block children from doing it,” she said.
The United States TikTok ban has been postponed for 75 days. Four groups are interested in buying the app, according to President Donald Trump’s administration.
WATCH: Local family business prepares as Trump’s tariffs begin
©2025 Cox Media Group
