TikTok announces global Youth Council informed by its study of 12,000 teens and parents

TikTok has officially established a coalition of young people who will strive to make the app a safer place for users under the age of 18. The ByteDance-owned video platform has announced its Youth Council, which will be comprised of 15 teenagers who hail from across the globe.

The Youth Council was born out of a partnership between TikTok and Praesidio Safeguarding, an online safety agency. The 15 members of the initial cohort are all between the ages of 15 and 18, and they hail from a diverse list of home countries that includes the US, UK, Brazil, Indonesia, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, and Morocco.

TikTok first revealed its intention to establish a Youth Council last June. According to a TikTok Newsroom post, the group convened for the first time in December 2023. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was present at the Youth Council’s second get-together.

“Today we’re announcing the launch of TikTok’s global Youth Council, a new initiative that further strengthens how we build our app to be safe for teens by design,” reads the Newsroom post. “The launch comes as new global research with over 12,000 teens and parents of teens aged 13-17 reveals a desire for more opportunities to work alongside platforms.”

The research in question included a survey of 2,000 U.S. teens and parents conducted by YouGov and ConnectSafely. The results showed that 76% of teens believe that platforms like TikTok should establish forums to hear the concerns of young people, but only 40% of parents use the safety tools available on online platforms. Among the other 60%, about 8% of parents say they don’t know how to use those safety features.

Among its stated goals, the Youth Council will raise awareness about the teen-facing resources on TikTok. During their February 2024 meeting, they contributed to the redesign of TikTok’s Youth Portal and requested details about the factors that inform the app’s reporting and blocking systems.

TikTok’s relations with its teenage users could play a pivotal role in its U.S. operations. Though most Americans support the idea of a TikTok ban, the majority of Gen Z approves of the app, and some members of that generation have sparred with their parents in the wake of the latest regulatory proposal in Congress.

To extend an olive branch to teenagers and twentysomethings, TikTok is relying on a method it has utilized since 2020. That’s when it launched its first Advisory Council to tackle tough subjects like security and cyberbullying.