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XTikTok Videos Will Get 'Content Levels', Sort Of Like 'R' Rated Movies
Christian Hetrick
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.
Movies, music and video games have long received content ratings to shield kids from mature media. Films featuring sex scenes or gory violence are rated “R,” while albums full of curse words are slapped with the “Parental Advisory” label.
Nothing like that exists in the Wild West of user-generated social media. But TikTok on Wednesday said it is building something similar: a new system to organize content based on thematic maturity. In the coming weeks, the Culver City-based company will roll out an early version, with the goal of preventing “overtly mature themes” from reaching teens. TikTok is calling it “Content Levels.”
“Many people will be familiar with similar systems from their use in the film industry, television, or gaming and we are creating with these in mind while also knowing we need to develop an approach unique to TikTok,” Cormac Keenan, TikTok’s head of Trust and Safety, wrote in a blog post.
The company said it will assign videos a “maturity score” when it detects content that has "mature or complex themes." As an example, TikTok said frightening or “intense” fictional scenes could receive a maturity score.
That will help block people under the age of 18 from viewing those videos, according to TikTok. The firm shared screenshots showing “age protected” posts flagged as “unavailable” to younger users. For now, the social media giant said it is focused on “safeguarding the teen experience,” but it eventually plans to offer more detailed content filtering options for all users.
A screenshot showing an "unavailable" post under TikTok's new Content Levels system.
Image courtesy of TikTok
TikTok’s new Content Levels come as social media platforms face scrutiny over how their apps can be harmful to kids. Federal lawmakers in Washington have grilled tech executives about child safety, while state attorneys general are investigating social media giants over how their design, operations and promotional features could be bad for kids. News reports and lawsuits have said TikTok has fed teens videos depicting eating disorders, dangerous viral “challenges” and other damaging content.
The company has already taken some steps to separate content for teens and adults. TikTok is testing a new setting to let users restrict livestreams to viewers who are 18 and older. The company also updated content rules aimed at combating harmful content, such as preventing viral hoaxes, shielding the LGBTQ community from harassment and removing videos promoting unhealthy eating.
TikTok’s new Content Levels come as social media platforms face scrutiny over how their apps can be harmful to kids. Federal lawmakers in Washington have grilled tech executives about child safety, while state attorneys general are investigating social media giants over how their design, operations and promotional features could be bad for kids. News reports and lawsuits have said TikTok has fed teens videos depicting eating disorders, dangerous viral “challenges” and other damaging content.
The company has already taken some steps to separate content for teens and adults. TikTok is testing a new setting to let users restrict livestreams to viewers who are 18 and older. The company also updated content rules aimed at combating harmful content, such as preventing viral hoaxes, shielding the LGBTQ community from harassment and removing videos promoting unhealthy eating.
In addition to the forthcoming maturity scores, TikTok announced Wednesday that it is rolling out a tool for people to filter out videos with words or hashtags they don't want to see in their feeds. The company said it has also worked to avoid flooding users with similar videos on topics that could be problematic when seen repeatedly, such as dieting, sadness and other well-being issues.
A TikTok spokesperson did not detail what the company’s guidelines for maturity scores will look like, such as whether videos containing violence or profanity will be automatically age-restricted, for example. TikTok users won’t be able to appeal their videos’ maturity scores in the first version of Content Levels, the spokesperson added. That could upset some creators since such restrictions would presumably limit their virality. The TikTok spokesperson said the firm will listen to feedback over the coming months before making adjustments.
But the biggest question of all may be how effective Content Levels will actually be at shielding kids from mature content. Despite the best efforts of parents, plenty of kids still find a way to watch “R” rated movies and play “M” rated video games. Teens will likely try to do the same on TikTok.
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Christian Hetrick
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.
Creator Startup Jellysmack Buys YouTube Analytics Firm AMA Digital
12:39 PM | April 26, 2022
Photo by Szabo Viktor on Unsplash
Creator economy startup Jellysmack has acquired AMA Digital, a Chicago-based YouTube analytics company, for an undisclosed amount.
Jellysmack said Tuesday that it will use AMA’s data analytics to boost its creator program, which helps roughly 500 content creators grow their audiences and revenues. The company, which has more than 120 employees in Los Angeles and partners with over 80 L.A.-based creators, uses A.I. technology, proprietary data and video editing tools to optimize and launch videos on YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and other platforms.
“We believe Jellysmack offers the best tech stack available in the creator economy, and the acquisition of AMA will further strengthen our core product to better serve our creator partners,” Michael Philippe, Jellysmack’s co-founder and co-CEO, said in a statement.
Founded in 2019 by Mateo Price, Chicago-based AMA claims to use proprietary data and technology to help YouTubers increase their revenue and viewership. The company says it has generated millions of dollars in incremental revenue for its creators—including popular YouTubers Jesser, Ali Abdaal and Dylan Lemay, among others—who collectively have 60 million subscribers. As part of the deal, Price will join Jellysmack as director of YouTube development.
In addition to enhancing its creator program, Jellysmack said AMA’s platform will help with its catalog licensing business, as well. In January, the company announced it would spend $500 million to license the monetization rights to YouTube creators’ back catalogs. The business of YouTube catalogs as lucrative assets has quickly gained ground, with L.A.-based Spotter also offering upfront payments to license YouTubers’ libraries.
Founded in 2016, New York-based Jellysmack’s most recent funding round, announced in May 2021, was led by Japanese investment giant SoftBank. While the startup did not disclose the size of the investment, PitchBook data indicates that Jellysmack raised $950 million at a $3 billion valuation. (A company spokesperson would only disclose the startup’s valuation as over $1 billion.) Jellysmack claims its managed content generates 10 billion global monthly video views and reaches 125 million unique U.S. users. Its roster of creators includes YouTubers like MrBeast, PewDiePie and Karina Garcia.
The AMA deal is Jellysmack’s second-ever acquisition, following the November purchase of A.I. video editing technology company Kamua.
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Christian Hetrick
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.
Why Women’s Purchasing Power Is a Huge Advantage for Female-Led Leagues
05:00 AM | June 12, 2023
Samson Amore
According to a Forbes report last April, both the viewership and dollars behind women’s sports at a collegiate and professional level are growing.
In 2022, the first 32 games of the NCAA tournament had record attendance levels, breaking records set back in 2004, and largely driven by the new and rapidly growing women’s NCAA tournament. WNBA openers this year saw a 21% spike in attendance, with some teams including the LA Sparks reporting triple-digit ticket sales growth, about 121% over 2022’s total. In 2023, the average size of an LA Sparks crowd swelled to 10,396 people, up from 4,701 people.
Women make up half the population, but “also 50% of the folks that are walking into the stadium at Dodger Stadium, or your NFL fans are just about 50% women,” noted Erin Storck, a panelist and senior analyst at Los Angeles-based Elysian Park Ventures.
Storck added that in heterosexual households, women generally manage most of the family’s money, giving them huge purchasing power, a potential advantage for female-run leagues. “There's an untapped revenue opportunity,” she noted.
In the soccer world, Los Angeles-based women’s soccer team Angel City FC has put in the work to become a household name, not just in LA County but across the nation. At an LA Tech Week panel hosted by Athlete Strategies about investing in sports, Angel City head of strategy and chief of staff Kari Fleischauer said that years before launching the women’s National Women’s Soccer League team, Angel City FC was pounding the pavement letting people know about the excitement ladies soccer can bring. She noted community is key, and that fostering a sense of engagement and safety at the team’s home venue, BMO stadium (formerly Banc of California Stadium), is one reason fans keep coming back.
Adding free metro rides to BMO stadium and private rooms for nursing fans to breastfeed or fans on the spectrum to avoid sensory overload, were just some of the ways ACFC tried to include its community in the concept of its stadium, Fleischauer said. She noted, though, that roughly 46% of Angel City fans are “straight white dudes hanging out with their bros.”
“Particularly [on] the woman's side, I'd like to think we do a better job of making sure that there's spaces for everyone,” Fleischauer told the audience. “One thing we realize is accessibility is a huge thing.”
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Samson Amore
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.
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