You know your product is fully addictive when YOU’RE the one telling people, “Okay, that’s enough.”
TikTok announced a new feature that will prompt teenagers to stop scrolling and start MEDITATING instead.
If your kid is on TikTok after 10:00 P.M., they’ll see an alert in their “For You” feed that offers guided meditation to help them fall asleep. Then if they keep scrolling, they’ll get hit with a second prompt that fills the whole screen.
TikTok’s parent company ByteDance says they tested the feature with a handful of teenagers this year, and only 2% turned the feature off.
It’s in response to public pressure and claims TikTok is melting our children’s brains. They’re making it available for adults too, but anyone under 18 will have it turned on by default.
(Here’s an example of the feature.)
Today we’re launching in-app guided meditation exercises for our entire community and expanding our Mental Health Education Fund to $7.3 million. These updates build on our work to champion well-being and enhance reliable mental health information from trusted sources on TikTok.… pic.twitter.com/543ffMywGi
— TikTokComms (@TikTokComms) May 15, 2025
(The idea of banning the Chinese app is also still on the table if they don’t sell to a U.S. entity by June 19th. But President Trump said this month he’ll probably extend that deadline again if needed.)
