TikTok to block beauty filters for teenagers due to mental health issues

TikTok is putting age restrictions on some of its beauty filters to address concerns about how they affect the mental health of its teenage users. Some of the changes rolling out “in the coming weeks” include preventing under-18s from using certain appearance-altering effects and expanding filter descriptions to specify what the filters adjust when applied.

The says the press release that age restrictions do not apply to filter effects that are “designed to be obvious and funny”, such as adding animal ears or comically exaggerating certain features. The change is likely intended to address beautifying effects like Bold Glamor that give users smoother skin, longer eyelashes and slimmer faces – which can be harder to detect.

Dr. Nikki Soo, TikTok’s safety and welfare officer for public policy for Europe, confirmed to The edge that the age restrictions for appearance-altering effects will be rolled out globally.

The changes are introduced in response to a report from children’s online safety non-profit internet matterswho found that “beautifying filters contributed to a distorted worldview in which perfect images are normalized.” Children were often unable to tell when images had been altered, according to the report, and faced “significant social pressure” to look a certain way online.

New resources will also be introduced to 13 unspecified European countries “in the coming weeks”, which will connect users who report suicide, self-harm, hate and harassment content to relevant local helplines. According to TikTok, the platform now has over 175 million monthly active users in Europe.

“There is no finish line when it comes to safety and security, and we will continue to learn from our community, collaborate with experts and strive to make it even better,” Christine Grahn, TikTok’s European head of public policy, said on LinkedIn. “If our users don’t feel safe, they won’t bring their true selves to TikTok and the platform just wouldn’t be the same.”

TikTok is also exploring new machine learning technologies that can detect accounts created by users who are under 13 – the minimum age to use the platform. The company says users who have their accounts deleted will be able to appeal “if they believe we made a mistake” and that it removes around six million accounts globally each year that do not meet minimum age requirements .

Update, November 27: Added confirmation from TikTok about global availability.