Mental Wellbeing, Tik Tok Launches Night Meditation

TikTok launches a mandatory guided meditation feature for minors after 10 p.m. in an effort to combat screen addiction and improve the digital well-being of teens and families. Already available on a trial basis for a small group of users, 'meditation in sleep hours' will be active by default for all users under the age of 18.

With the change, teens will see a full-screen "guided meditation" when they try to scroll through the app after 10 p.m. The feature can also be used by adults, but they will have to enable it in the settings. "Research shows that mindfulness meditation can improve sleep quality," explains a note from Tik Tok "if a teen decides to use the app after 10 p.m., their "for you" feed will be interrupted by a guided meditation exercise, which will help them wind down for the night.

If they decide to spend more time on TikTok after the first reminder, we'll show a second, full-screen message that's harder to ignore.'

The company says that in initial tests, 98% of teens chose to keep the nighttime meditation settings on. Previous attempts by TikTok to limit time spent online have had mixed results. Engadget notes that in October last year, internal documents emerged that showed children were spending an average of 107 minutes a day on the app, even when a 60-minute limit was in place. Since then, TikTok has beefed up some safety features, including parental controls. The app’s fate in the United States is still up in the air, after President Trump extended the deadline for a deal with the Chinese-owned platform Bytedance by another 75 days in early April.