TikTok highlights safety features to protect Filipino teens online

TikTok, one of the go-to social media applications of Filipinos, has laid out its initiatives and in-app safety features to ensure the protection of teenagers while using the platform.

Launched in 2020, the platform’s Family Pairing feature enables parents or guardians to connect their account with their teenage kin, providing tools to oversee and support their app usage and digital experience.

“What we want to do is empower these guardians to utilize safety tools and resources, and to have conversations with their teens about good digital habits and digital literacy skills,” Bea Bautista, communication head of TikTok Philippines said during the platform’s panel discussion on Tuesday.

Using the feature, parents can adjust account settings, such as setting screen time limits, filtering inappropriate content on the ‘For You Page’ (FYP), restricting direct messaging (especially for users under 16), and enabling other safety controls.

TikTok is also actively monitoring content that violates its community guidelines, including issues such as artificial intelligence (AI), online gambling, and sexual exploitation involving minors.

“We require all AI-generated content to be labeled as such so that users, no matter their age, especially teenagers who are only beginning to develop their discernment, are able to see, ‘Oh, I’m interacting with content that is AI-generated,” Peachy A. Paderna, public policy manager of TikTok Philippines said.

“If it’s not labeled, then it doesn’t follow our guidelines, and we take action on content like that,” she added.

For online gambling, which has recently come under public scrutiny, TikTok is also taking measures within its community guidelines, such as not allowing content that provides links to gambling services and restricting gambling-related content from being promoted to users under 18 years old.

Ms. Paderna said that for its content moderation, the platform has a stringent system that combines automated and human detection.

In the first three months of 2025, TikTok reported that it removed around 4.5 million videos in the Philippines for violating its community guidelines.

To further help Filipino youth navigate the social media space, Ms. Bautista said that more digital literacy programs are in the platform’s pipeline. One of these is the upcoming launch of the #ThinkTwice campaign 2.0, a program that encourages TikTok users to think critically before posting or engaging with content. She has not provided a specific launch date. – Edg Adrian A. Eva