TikTok Restricts Hosting of Livestreams on Its Platform to Users Below 18 Years

Short-form video-sharing platform TikTok is set to restrict users below the age of 18 years from hosting live streams on its platform, as part of its ongoing work to keep its community safe.

The platform will begin the implementation of this on November 23 as it plans to roll it out in the coming weeks. It however noted that this new rule is not an avenue for users to share adult content, as every content shared on the platform is still subject to the app’s policies.

Through this, TikTok seeks to prevent minors from coming across content that is targeted toward the adult audience on the platform.

TikTok said in a statement, “We plan to introduce a new way for creators to choose if they’d prefer to only reach an adult audience in their LIVE,” the company said in a blog post.

“For instance, perhaps a comedy routine is better suited for people over age 18. Or, a host may plan to talk about a difficult life experience and they would feel more comfortable knowing the conversation is limited to adults.”

The social media platform had disclosed that it would go as far as having displayable ratings or labels on videos shared on the platform, which would allow people to see the age-appropriate nature of a given piece of content at a glance.

The social media platform also plans to rely on categorization on the back end and would lean on having creators tag their content in some way, hence the new adult-only livestreams.

In addition to this new feature, TikTok is also set to introduce an updated version of its keyword filtering tool that will send a reminder to people and suggest new keywords they may want to consider adding to their filter list.

Creators can currently use the app’s keyword filtering tool to limit comments they feel aren’t appropriate.