Douyin Releases Data Report on Protection of Minors

On Monday, ByteDance’s short video app Douyin released a data report on the company’s measures to protect minors. The report updates the company’s progress in the promotion of a youth mode, content construction, platform governance and other aspects required with the implementation of the updated Law on the Protection of Minors on June 1, 2021.

According to the report, since September last year, Douyin has adopted the toughest youth mode ever on its platform, with all authenticated users under the age of 14 entering youth mode and unable to exit on their own. For users between the ages of 14 and 18, Douyin provides stricter security protection in content recommendation, social networking and search, such as prohibiting the display of personal information other than avatars and nicknames to strangers. In Teen Mode, users can only use Douyin for 40 minutes per day by default, and cannot use it from 22:00 pm to 6:00 am the next day.

To address the issue of spending by suspected minors, Douyin has established a mechanism with which users can later verify and attain a refund within 24 hours. So far the company boasts a high completion rate at about 97% of applications being completed within one day.

Short video platforms serve as a bridge not only for teenagers to access information but also to explore the world. Up until now, the youth mode has covered a number of content categories including language learning, Chinese poetry, safety education, talent sports, traditional culture, picture book stories, among others, with an average of 9,146 new quality videos added every day.

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Douyin now has over 600 million daily active users and is an important source of revenue for ByteDance. According to Tech Planet, ByteDance raised its target of local life business in 2022 from 40 billion yuan ($6 billion) to 50 billion yuan. To achieve this goal, Douyin recently issued an announcement making it clear that service fees will be charged for life service businesses after June 1. Specifically, the average software service rate of each commodity category is 3%, and the highest rate does not exceed 8%. Besides, the company is providing a 60-day protection period for new merchants, during which only the payment channel service fee is charged.