As part of a larger initiative to strengthen safety features for the app’s younger users, TikTok said last summer that it wanted to establish a “youth council” of teenagers to provide advice to the firm. The corporation announced that the organization is now formally recognized and that they have begun holding meetings with the CEO, Shou Chew.
The news coincides with TikTok’s legal battle against a measure that would compel parent company ByteDance to either sell the app or risk being banned in the US. The business has attempted to organize its users—many of whom are teenagers—to reject the proposal as part of that endeavor. One of the biggest concerns that TikTok’s detractors point to as one of the app’s biggest hazards is youth safety.
It’s not clear if the newly-formed youth council will do much to counter that perception. But the company says the group has already influenced an upcoming media literacy campaign in the US that will “focus on misinformation, AI-generated content, and more.” The council, made up of 15 teens from the US, UK, Brazil, Indonesia, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, and Morocco, has also weighed in on the app’s “youth portal” feature, which provides in-app privacy and security resources.
According to TikTok, the council is meant to advise on the safety policies and issues that often impact teens. The group also collaborates with UK online safety organization Praesidio Safeguarding, which helped select the council’s teenage members, all of whom are paid, according to TikTok. The company notes that CEO Shou Chew attended the most recent meeting in February, when the youth council asked TikTok to share more details about how reporting and blocking work in the app.
While it’s not yet clear how much, if any, influence TikTok’s youth council will ultimately wield over the company’s policies, it underscores just how important teens are to the platform. TikTok is one of the most dominant apps among teens in the US, currently the company’s largest market. The company has also leaned on them to oppose the bill that could lead to a ban of the app, though those efforts may have backfired.
