As social media companies continue to battle pressure to improve security on their platforms, TikTok has announced it will introduce a ban on the use of beauty filters on the platform, The Guardian reported. The social media company, which has billions of users, mostly young people, announced the changes during a security forum held at its European headquarters in Dublin.
The company said there are widespread concerns that these beauty filters pressure teenagers, especially girls, to groom themselves and have a negative emotional impact. For example, some young people say their real faces have become ugly after using the filters.
The restrictions, which will come into effect over the coming weeks, are aimed at curbing the growing anxiety and low self-esteem that are causing mental health problems among teenagers and young adults on the platform. Under the new regulations, adolescents under the age of 18 will be prohibited from artificially enlarging their eyes, plumping up their lips, or smoothing or changing their skin tone.
The restricted beauty filters include both those that TikTok offers on the platform and those that users create themselves. This means that there are restrictions on filters such as “bold glamour”. These filters change children’s facial features in ways that makeup cannot. Comic filters that add rabbit ears or dog noses are also affected.
But there are concerns that the effectiveness of the restrictions will be undermined by the fact that many of these teenagers lie about their age on the platform. This is despite the company’s ongoing efforts to ban underage users who are found to be lying about their age.
TikTok’s beauty filter restrictions for teenage users come amid a global debate over whether it’s appropriate to allow teenagers under the age of 16 to use social networks. In the UK, lawmakers are proposing tighter restrictions on social media use by minors as part of online safety legislation, which would force social media companies to ban users under a certain age from their platforms.
Similarly, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced last Thursday that legislation is in the works to ban children under the age of 16 from using social media. The bill, which still needs to be passed by the House of Representatives, notes that it specifies age restrictions and puts the onus on social media platforms to enforce the law.
TikTok has already said it will strengthen its systems for blocking users under the age of 13 from its platform, taking steps to ensure it cleans up its act well before these laws take effect. The company also said it plans to test a new automated system by the end of the year that uses machine learning to detect people circumventing age restrictions.
