TikTok Becomes a Member of the Technology Coalition to Improve Methods Of Protecting Young Users
Continuing with their ongoing efforts to protect young users, TikTok announced on Wednesday its membership of the Technology Coalition: a group committed to fighting the sexual exploitation and abuse of children online.
[Image Creds: Technology Coalition]
Technology Coalition, formed in 2016, is comprised of a group of tech industry giants, all seeking to formulate optimal methods in detecting harmful, concerning and offensive trends that are harmful to young users.
As defined by Technology Coalition:
“We seek to prevent and eradicate online child sexual exploitation and abuse. We have invested in collaborating and sharing expertise with one another because we recognise that we have the same goals and face many of the same challenges.”
Facebook, Twitter, Google and Snap Inc. are all existing members of the group, whilst Pinterest and Discord are recent additions.
TikTok explained the benefits of joining forces with Technology Coalition:
“We’re at our strongest when we work together, which is why we’re proud to join the Technology Coalition. Through this membership, we hope to deepen our evidence-based approach to intervention and contribute our unique learnings from addressing child safety and exploitation. TikTok is also joining the board of the Technology Coalition along with a number of committees that aim to advance protections for children online and off and drive greater transparency of evolving threats to child safety.”
TikTok’s negative reputation when it comes to child safety is no secret; the app was banned in Pakistan, due to ‘immoral and indecent content‘. It was also blocked in Italy for some time, after claims were made that a ten-year-old girl died after taking part in a TikTok trend called “blackout challenge.” Moreover, The European Commission is investigating claims that TikTok exposes children to unfitting content.
It is imperative that TikTok takes steps to safeguard effectively, especially considering its high proportion of young users. For perspective, last year The New York Times shared a report on TikTok revealing that more than a third of its US audience was aged under 14 years old.
This partnership is definitely a positive step towards protecting children, shielding them from what TikTok calls “the full TikTok experience” and creating a safe zone for content creation.
Finally, for our previous #SocialShort, click here.
