TikTok launches the global Youth Council to promote the safety of teenagers on the social network | TECHNOLOGY

TikTok has launched the global Youth Council, a new initiative to promote the safety of adolescents on the social network, in which 15 users between 15 and 18 years old, and of different nationalities, come together to offer approaches on well-being and inclusion on the platform.

The social network owned by ByteDance already has some tools to protect minor users and guarantee their safety. This is the case of Family Synchronization, a portal in which parents and guardians can link their personal accounts to those of their minor children to have access to their privacy settings, establish content filters and decide how long they can use the application. among other features.

TikTok aims to strengthen “even more” security in the application, so that it becomes an accessible space where young people “show themselves as they are.” In this context, in June of last year the company detailed that it was planning to launch a Global Youth Council at the end of 2023, aimed at “listening to the experiences of those who directly use the platform.”

Now, TikTok has officially launched its global Youth Council, made up of 15 teenagers between 15 and 18 years old, in charge of representing the different communities and countries in which the social network is used, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Indonesia, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico and Morocco, as well as defending the interests and concerns of young creators.

Along with these 15 teenagers, the Youth Council is completed by the agency specialized in online security Praesidio Safeguarding, which also provides the knowledge of its experts in security and digital well-being.

As TikTok explained in a statement on its blog, the Youth Council met for the first time in December 2023 and recently held its second meeting, in which the platform’s executive director also participated. Shou Chew.

In this sense, during the meeting, the company noted that members have established their priorities for this year 2024, which includes focusing on the well-being and inclusion of young people to help ensure that TikTok is a “safe” platform. and accessible.”

The Youth Council also discussed the redesign of the TikTok Youth Portal, providing information about their personal use on the platform, and requested more information about complaints on the social network and the blocking of accounts, in order to better understand ” “what happens after a complaint.”

As TikTok has clarified, the launch of this advice has been carried out after a global investigation carried out in association with the company ConnectSafely, in which more than 12,000 adolescents between 13 and 17 years old, and the parents or guardians of these adolescents, participated. , which reveals the desire of young people to “have more opportunities to work alongside platforms.”

With all this, the company has stressed that “for a long time” they have sought external perspectives to “be able to do more as we learn more” about TikTok and its use by users. That is why, with this type of initiatives, they continue to implement innovations focused on security.

As an example, during the first meeting of the Youth Council, the adolescents discussed the importance of educational campaigns and, therefore, in the coming months, TikTok will launch “new media literacy efforts in the United States”, in order to counteract misinformation. and the content generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI), among other issues.