TikTok will interrupt teens’ feeds with guided meditation after 10PM. The platform has been testing the feature with a “wind down” prompt, but now it’ll show the notification with guided meditation by default to all users under 18.
TikTok’s wind-down prompt initially only played calming music to remind teens to take a break from the app at nighttime. It was also only shown to teens under 16. But now, the prompts will include meditation, too, and will be available to adults who toggle on “Sleep Hours” from the Screen Time settings page as well.
While testing its meditation feature, TikTok says it found 98 percent of users under 16 kept it on after trying it for the first time. Teens can ignore the initial 10PM reminder, but the app will display another full-screen prompt later that’s harder to dismiss.
TikTok has until June 19th to divest its US operations or face a ban, but that hasn’t stopped it from trying to address safety concerns. In March, TikTok also launched a Time Away tool that parents or caregivers can use to prevent their child from accessing the app at certain times.
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Okay. This is so unbelievably stupid I opened the article to make sure this was the Real Verge. This sounds like an Onion headline of old.
Grafting this mix of wellness pop-psychology and infantilization, onto a social media service centered around short-form content filled with disinformation is... the perfect embodiment of social media companies in the 21st century.