Over the last decade, social media has evolved from silly dog ​​lenses to over-the-top beauty filters. The latter is the focus of a new initiative from TikTok – the company is currently being sued in 14 US states over negative effects on the mental health of young people. TikTok is now taking a step to limit young people’s access to these appearance-altering effects, with the platform announcing on Tuesday new restrictions on which filters will be available to users under 18.

TikTok limits the use of “some appearance effects” to everyone in that age group, a vague promise whose scope will determine whether it’s actually intended to help young people or just TikTok’s image. The company also plans to expand the amount of information each filter must have about changes to a person’s appearance. TikTok is also “updating” its guidelines for creators in its TikTok Effects House on the impact certain filters might have – again vague, so we’ll have to see if it’s just talk or actually useful.

Then it’s a matter of finding and blocking users under the age of 13. The company says it removes six million accounts worldwide each month of users it suspects are underage. Now TikTok is also “exploring” how to use machine learning to detect accounts run by people under 13 and then send them to a moderator for verification. A TikTok spokesperson confirmed to Engadget that the company will initially test this in the UK, with the filtering restrictions and policies set to roll out globally in the coming weeks and months.