Chinese teenagers can now use Douyin, China’s TikTok, for only 40 minutes a day

By Malavika Pradeep

Published Sep 20, 2021 at 09:37 AM

Reading time: 2 minutes

22751

Play time’s over for China’s youth as the country increasingly cracks down on culture and business following President Xi Jinping’s call for a “national rejuvenation.” Joining a three-hour ban on “electronic drugs” (popularly known as video games), is yet another limitation on how the demographic spends their free time.

TikTok on the clock

On 18 September, ByteDance, the parent company of Chinese video-sharing app TikTok—known as Douyin—imposed a daily usage limit for those under the age of 14. The new measures not only restrict them to a maximum of 40 minutes spent on the app per day but bans them from accessing it between 10 p.m to 6 a.m.

Called Xiao Qu Xing, which translates to ‘Little Fun Star’, these restrictions are implemented with a built-in feature called ‘teenage mode’. “If you are a real-name registered user under 14 years old, you will automatically find yourself in ‘teenage mode’ upon opening Douyin,” the company wrote on its corporate blog. Apart from the daily usage limits, the mode offers a personalised feed of short video-based educational content including “interesting popular science experiments, exhibitions in museums and galleries, beautiful scenery across the country, explanations of historical knowledge, and so on.” While young users are allowed to ‘like’ these clips, they are banned from sharing them with others or even uploading their own.

The autonomy to adjust the time limit further (from a maximum of 40 minutes) is under parental control. The company also encourages them to help their children complete the ‘real-name’ authentication process—which requests their name, phone number and an official ID—and activate the mode when prompted by the app.

Chinese teenagers can now use Douyin, China’s TikTok, for only 40 minutes a day

China and the curious case of ‘teenage modes’

In June 2021, the Chinese government added a chapter on “internet protection” to its newly-revised Minor Protection Law, which stated how “providers of online games, livestreams, audio and visual content and social media should implement time management tools, feature restrictions and purchase restrictions for underage users.” Presently, with the government seeking to implement rules on the algorithms tech companies use to recommend videos and other content, top officials and state media are aiming to reduce the amount of time Chinese teenagers spend online in the first place.

Douyin’s teenage mode not only keeps the company in line with this vision but also seeks to add this layer of ‘internet protection’ with its real-name authentication feature. However, according to a commentary in the People’s Daily—the mouthpiece of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—such modes deployed by Chinese internet platforms “to protect teenagers from gaming addiction and inappropriate short videos,” do not go far enough, signalling that tech giants will likely have to do even more to safeguard minors and appease regulators.

“While the youth modes have apparently accumulated a significant number of users, many problems still persist—with some youth modes being criticised by parents as ‘existing in name only’,” the state newspaper mentioned, adding how it can be easily bypassed with simple workarounds.

The article, as noted by South China Morning Post, cited the case of a father in Guangxi who said, “I don’t know how my son came to know the password that I’ve set and he flat-out disabled the youth mode in these mobile games. He even said that some classmates of his have bought hack tips from the internet to bypass the ‘youth mode’.”

While Tencent started leveraging facial recognition to limit the amount of time minors could spend playing games, the technology is far from being the ideal alternative here—given how children have previously cheated the system to set up their own OnlyFans using documents of their older relatives. With Kuaishou (another video-sharing app and Douyin’s major competitor in China) also featuring a teenage mode which is non-mandatory, concerns have been triggered over the possibility of such rules being adopted by companies globally to maintain their share in China.

Keep On Reading

By Fatou Ferraro Mboup

How celebrities like Mark Wahlberg and Gwen Stefani are monetising spirituality through the Hallow app

By Eliza Frost

Everyone’s posing like Nicki Minaj: the TikTok trend explained 

By Eliza Frost

All the Tea on the new app that lets women vet men and date safely

By Eliza Frost

Bad timing? Gavin Casalegno’s Dunkin’ ad sparks backlash over actor’s alleged conservative views

By Fatou Ferraro Mboup

Keke Palmer’s past resurfaces amid backlash over Jonathan Majors podcast interview

By Charlie Sawyer

President Trump and JD Vance angry over the DNC setting up a taco truck outside RNC headquarters

By Charlie Sawyer

Fans express concern after Harry Potter TV series announces the casting of Harry, Ron, and Hermione

By Charlie Sawyer

How rediscovering Nintendogs as an adult has helped my anxiety

By Charlie Sawyer

Gavin Casalegno cancelled? The Summer I Turned Pretty fans turn on him amid cast drama

By Abby Amoakuh

Julia Fox reveals her ex-husband secretly baptised her son and warns women of loser fathers

By Charlie Sawyer

New study confirms Bacterial Vaginosis can be sexually transmitted, backing what women have long suspected

By Fatou Ferraro Mboup

Gaza journalist death toll surpasses that of both World Wars, following latest Israeli airstrike that killed reporter

By Eliza Frost

Netflix is predicting your next favourite show based on your zodiac sign 

By Charlie Sawyer

Harry Potter star defends Tom Felton over his controversial comments on JK Rowling’s transphobia

By Abby Amoakuh

South Asian creators call out influencers for cultural appropriation after seeing scandi scarves at Coachella

By Fatou Ferraro Mboup

Conspiracy theorists are convinced Blue Origin’s all-female space flight was fake

By Charlie Sawyer

Emma Watson reveals disgusting paparazzi ambush on her 18th birthday

By Fatou Ferraro Mboup

MrBeast hunts for volunteers to test the viral question: who would win between 100 men and one gorilla?

By Charlie Sawyer

From performing at Mother Teresa’s canonization to 10+ film roles, no one works as hard as Rita Ora’s agent

By Charlie Sawyer

Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz Beckham hire a lawyer to battle misinformation amid growing family rift