Some videos from teenagers' feeds will be age-restricted on TikTok

TikTok claimed in February that it was developing new methods to restrict specific genres of material in order to improve the safety of its teenagers. The company is now sharing more information about its rating system, known as Content Levels, which it intends to rollout "in the coming weeks."

The corporate likened its approach to those in use by the film and video gaming industries. It's designed to remove films with more "mature" themes from the feeds of its teen users. It will apply to videos that would not otherwise break TikTok's guidelines but that may be unsuitable for younger children of the app.

When the new policy goes into effect, instead of being warned that the video is age restricted, teens between the ages of 13 and 17 will see a message that it is. “When we identify a video contains mature or complex themes, such as frightening or intense fictional scenes that may be too scary for younger audiences, a maturity score will be assigned to the video so that it can be prevented from being viewed across TikTok's whole experience by those under 18," TikTok notes in a blog post.

The company didn't describe how it would calculate these maturity scores or what criteria it will use to categorize its videos. TikTok stated that the functionality is still in its early stages and that future features are planned. Company executives have previously said they want TikTok users to be able to pick the sort of material they wish to view.

The update, also expected in the coming weeks, will provide users a new method to remove undesirable subjects from their "For You" page. The app is also introducing a new option for suppressing particular words or hashtags on their "For You" list.

TikTok also addressed its efforts to avoid potentially dangerous "repetitive patterns" in its For You recommendations. Previously, the firm said it was exploring methods to limit people from being flooded with a lot of material about issues such as mental health or eating disorders. Now that those early tests have proved successful, users in the United States are less likely to encounter many videos on these themes at once. TikTok is now focused on increasing access to the functionality across more locations and languages.