TikTok To Establish a Youth Council to Provide a Safer Platform For Teens

TikTok said it will establish a youth council, whose job will be to develop safety tools that are more useful for its younger users.

The youth council will consist of teenagers who will provide feedback from its younger users on their experiences with the platform and assist in preventing the company from developing safety measures that are “ineffective or inadequate.”

Julie de Bailliencourt, the company’s global head of product policy, stated that the council would be introduced in the coming months but did not provide a precise date.

​​“It’s still very early stages, but, again, our goal is that we keep designing really effective products and policies that protect young people, but also enable them to find a voice,” de Bailliencourt said. “And we absolutely need to listen intently to what young people have to say about this.”

Recently, the effects of social media on teen mental health have come under scrutiny.

Earlier this year, a few teens told NBC News they believed social media was partially to blame for their friends’ deteriorating mental health in reaction to a US CDC report concerning an increase in unhappiness among young girls.

De Bailliencourt stated that they hope to talk with the youth council about topics like safety, digital literacy, well-being, and other resources they may find beneficial.

“I don’t think we have deployed yet all of the great ideas that could be deployed to make TikTok safe because all these ideas are still yet to be heard or are being worked on,” she said.

The platform expects representation from various countries and communities representation from various countries and communities represented on the council.