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How to use TikTok’s parental controls

Written By AJ Viray
Published • June 27th, 2020
GuidesMobile Apps
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The rising popularity of short-form video apps like TikTok has opened the floodgates of user-generated videos. Because it Is so popular with teenagers, parents obviously want to protect their teens from inappropriate content. If you’re not familiar, TikTok has parental controls that can help you with that.

But before you begin, you need access to your teen’s TikTok account on his or her iPhone or Android device, or if you prefer you can set up an adult account and link it to his or her account to remotely control the settings from the parent or guardian’s phone instead. Make sure you also download the latest version of the TikTok app to enable this.

Table of Contents

How to Connect Your TikTok Account to Your teenager’s Account

1. Open TikTok on the parent’s phone. Click Me (Profile). It’s on the bottom right of your screen.
2. Tap Settings. (Three vertical dots in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.)
3. Tap Family Pairing.
4. Tap Parent.
5. Tap Next.
6. Tap Continue. A QR code will appear on the parent’s account prompting the use of the teenager’s account to scan the code.
7. Open your teen’s TikTok account on their phone. Go to Profile > Settings, just like you did on your phone.
8. Tap Family Pairing.
9. Tap Teen.
10. Tap Next.

Use the teen’s phone to scan the QR code on the parent’s phone by tapping Scan Code. Once scanned, TikTok will display a message on the teen’s phone indicating that the account is now linked to the parent’s account.

Tap Link Account.
Confirm your selection again by tapping Link.
Family Pairing on both phones will now display messages indicating that the parent’s and teen’s accounts are now linked.

How to set TikTok screen time limits

On TikTok, you can limit the daily screen time for your teen between 40 minutes and 2 hours.

Open TikTok and tap Me (Profile). It’s on the bottom right of your screen.
Tap Settings which are the three vertical dots at the top right of your screen.
Tap Digital Wellbeing.
Tap Screen Time Management.
Tap Turn on Screen Time Management.
Turning on Screen Time Management on TikTok.
Enter a numerical passcode.
Tap Next.
Confirm the passcode by entering it again.
Tap Next.

How to restrict what your teen can watch

Open TikTok and tap Me (Profile). It’s on the bottom right of your screen.
Tap Settings which are the three vertical dots at the top right of your screen.
Tap Digital Wellbeing.
Tap Restricted Mode.
Tap Turn on Restricted Mode.
Enter a numerical passcode.
Tap Next.
Confirm the passcode by entering it again.
Tap Next.

Additional options for Search and Direct messaging controls are now accessible through Family Pairing.
To limit search capabilities on TikTok, toggle the Search feature to Off.
To control who your teen can send messages to or receive messages from, tap Direct messages. Tap your choice: Everyone, Friends, or Off.

Now that Family Pairing is set up, you can control the teen’s account from your phone and change settings at any time. Your teen will be unable to break any passcodes because everything is controlled remotely from the parent’s account on their phone.