TikTok Expand Family Pairing Feature with Educational Resources for Parents

Internet Matters joined with TikTok last year to create the family pairing feature on the social media platform. This new feature let family members link their own TikTok accounts with their children’s profiles to assist them with managing some of the key privacy settings and parental controls made available. Since the feature launched, family pairing also allows children and young people to experience TikTok, whilst also providing boundaries towards how they navigate the app including how they search for content and in particular, how they interact with others.

Now, Internet Matters have worked with TikTok again, to include new educational resources for parents. This new feature gives information on how teenagers use TikTok. It also includes suggestions for how parents should appropriately involve themselves in their children’s digital lives.

If a parent uses the Family Pairing feature, they will have access to supporting resources around digital parenting. Presented as tips, these are now sent as notifications to parents. Included is a list of suggestions that are there to open up conversations around safer internet use as well as showing factors such as trust and respect towards their children’s privacy which are immensely important.

This new feature also shows the importance of how children and young people want to feel they can approach a parent if something goes wrong. This also includes the importance of parents not panicking or overeacting when issues or problems arise with strong focus on always being available to talk.

As parents become more informed around what their children want from them, it can open up valuable discussions around how family members can support and respect each other around social media use.

Features such as parental controls and the family pairing feature with the new educational resources can assist with setting boundaries. It is important to understand though how opening up conversations can work towards having a much better impact for the family. You can download the SWGfL checklist for free about TikTok. You can also take a look at Childnet’s family agreement to learn more about opening discussions within the household around online safety.