The generation of “Zoomers” is expanding into adulthood and the social media platform TikTok is no longer catering solely to its teen user base or at least attempting to. The site hopes its core audience will soon be able to graduate alongside it.
In addition, TikTok allows its users to choose an “adults-only” setting for their live streams, limiting their audience to people over 18.
For various reasons, streamers may choose to enforce an age restriction and TikTok provided a couple of hypothetical scenarios in which they might do so.
Maybe an audience of adults is the best audience for a comedy act. It’s possible that a host wants to talk about a sensitive topic but would feel more at ease if only adults could listen,” the company said in a press release on Monday.
Those explanations may seem innocent and pure, but the site’s effort to filter content based on users’ ages isn’t going to become TikTok the next OnlyFans. Much of what we would label “adult” content is banned on the site. According to the rules online, the firm will not tolerate any material containing sexual references or images.
The most recent statement does not imply that the criterion will change for programs aimed just at adults. A representative from TikTok said in an email to Gizmodo that “all content, even if labeled as better suitable for persons over 18,” must adhere to the platform’s community rules.
In moderation, it’s treated the same way as any other content on TikTok. To ensure that our Community Guidelines are followed by all users and content on the site, we use a combination of human and automated means of monitoring and punishment.
Despite the site’s prohibitions on sexually explicit content, you should be aware that this does not imply you will never come across it. TikTok has had issues with moderation in the past and content that they should remove from the platform due to violations of community rules sometimes makes it through the cracks.
On top of several additional updates to the Livestream function, the firm announced upcoming adult-only broadcasts.
For instance, a multi-guest stream may now include up to five participants. In addition, the app reports that it is improving its keywords filtration function to notify content producers who want to regulate their broadcast comments and engagements of alerts and ideas.
The corporation has made an additional announcement about a change in age restrictions for online broadcasts. Streaming will soon be restricted to adults only. TikTokers with at least a thousand followers who are 16 or older may go live. This requirement will rise to 1,000 on November 23.
The business website from TikTok didn’t provide many details on the change; instead, it just described the update as an expansion of the app’s current graded age limits (such as the 18+ limit in monetization and the 16+ limit in instant messengers).
Changing the LIVE age requirement to 18 or older “reflects our dedication to safeguarding our youngest community members as they expand their digital presence,” the business told Gizmodo.
Under “our continued effort to help maintain our people safe,” we announced the adults-only stream option and the increased minimum age requirement for streaming.
TikTok’s user experience and economic strategy emphasize live streaming. Live streaming accounted for 15% of TikTok’s overall revenue in 2021, but its growth was twice as fast as online advertising.
Since TikTok doesn’t split ad revenue with viewers, live streaming is a popular way to monetize content. Recent criticism has focused on the corporation’s large cut of “gifts” and “tips” to network broadcasters. BBC reports that scammers posing as “middlemen” on TikTok stole 70% of the money migrants raised by pleading on the site.
