MEDIA REGULATION - TIKTOK

 

TIKTOK REGULATIONS

REGULATIONS IN CHINA VS AMERICA

Douyin, known as the Chinese TikTok was the first app version released in the year 2016, which is owned by the Chinese company Byte Dance. The app was extremely popular in China having 500 million daily users, which resulted in the release of TikTok to the US in 2018. Although the app had the same concept of being a short-form video hosting service, the regulations and rules of the two apps are very different form each other.

Douyin has regulations that affect children below the ages of 14, such as the app being locked form 10pm to 6am, able to be used for only 40 minutes per day and promotes science experiments, museum exhibits, patriotism and culture videos, education and PE lessons. Meanwhile, TikTok has no such regulations for younger audience, with the only restrictions being optional. 

This difference had a significant impact in the children's mental health, according to a survey shown on 60 Minutes in Youtube, when they asked pre-teens what were their most aspirational career, in China, the number one answer would be an astronaut, and in America it was a social media influencer.