Facebook vs. TikTok Parental Controls: Which is Better in Filtering Content for Children

Both Meta's Facebook and ByteDance's TikTok released an additional roll-out of their respective parental control tools in an effort to easily filter out inappropriate content for children. But which of the two is much more effective?

TikTok's Added Parental Controls

Three years after TikTok introduced the Family Pairing feature, the platform added new content filtering controls to let parents filter out videos containing specific words and hashtags. According to a report from Engadget, parents will be able to link their accounts through the feature to enable content and privacy settings.

Two features will be combined through the newly-added controls as TikTok brings this tool to Family Pairing as empowerment to parents and guardians. By adding this feature, TikTok believes that it will help reduce the likelihood of teenagers viewing explicit or jarring content. Prior to this recent launch, the company revealed that they have been working on this functionality since March.

As per a report from TechTimes, TikTok discussed with experts in the industry, like the Family Online Safety Institute, to make the feature more reliable and effective. "Striking a balance between enabling families to choose the best experience for their needs while also ensuring we respect young people's rights to participate in the online world," the company added.

Forming a global Youth Council was also announced by TikTok, aiming to listen to the experiences of those who directly use the platform and provide better offerings to make changes in order to create the safest possible experiences for the community.

Facebook's Parental Controls

Meanwhile, Meta also announced new parental control tools on Facebook, including a new parental supervision hub in Messenger that will block unwanted direct messages on the platform. TechCrunch reported that the controls would be available in Meta's Family Center, letting parents and guardians have access to the privacy and safety settings of the children.

They will also be notified when a teen reports someone by allowing this notification through the teens' phones. When it comes to messaging, parents have also controls regarding who can message and view their children's stories and reels.

Other than Facebook and Messenger, Meta also added these features to Instagram, which has taken a lot of multiple steps to limit teen interaction with grown adults. A "Take a Break" feature will also be tested by the company to nudge users after continual usage of the platform to put their phones down to take breaks and set daily time limits.

Which is Better?

While both platforms offer the same feature, Meta and ByteDance provided their respective parental controls aiming for the same reason: children's safety. The newly added controls will lessen the potentially damaging and traumatizing moments for the kids and teenagers, helping parents to easily adopt a feature for their children's sake.

However, these features were also added to comply with previous cases after facing investigations from the authorities. TikTok faced scrutiny over issues in the United States to its targeted-children userbase, while Meta was fined more than $400 million for violating guidelines from the GDPR over children's privacy.