More TikTok parental control. Yep, that exists.

TikTok is now allowing parents more privacy and nanny options over what content their ward will view. Parents can now restrict who will see the videos uploaded by their children. This is much like the friends-only post viewing option on Facebook. They will also be able to manage search options such as hashtags used to search restricted or inappropriate content. There's been just too much of #babukhaiso.

This is in addition to the existing ability to turn off or limit direct messages. It comes after the $5.7 million TikTok paid to settle children's safety issues faced by the predecessor Musicl.ly.

Instagram rolling out keyword search

Users in six English speaking countries can now search using keywords. Bangladesh, not yet. Previously, search options were restricted to hashtags or accounts limiting the actual variety of content showing up. While the update sounds promising, so far the machine learning has not caught up to better curate content that has not been tagged. This will roll out elsewhere but for now, users in Bangladesh have to still rely on #challengingtimes for relief on, well, challenging times. On a side note, I'm kind of disappointed that #challengingtimes has not yielded a single watch related image from BD. You will know if you follow your memes.

Zoombombers: Time to kill them dead

The new term is coined for people who invade zoom meetings to disrupt the flow of often serious discussions. They show dubious content to either ruin or in some cases, spice up meetings and classes. Now Zoom is allowing temporary pauses in meetings to help kick these invaders out and report them.

Simply click the security icon and select 'Suspend Participant Activities' effectively shutting down the Zoombomber.

Google Maps to provide new overlay for Covid

This will come with details and numbers on infected cases in particular areas provided by local authorities. I can sense you raising eyebrows at the last two words. Maps will also provide crowd density information on public transport allowing you to decide whether or not you want to avoid certain places. Great for social distancing. Just remember, Farmgate in Dhaka will always be red or a deeper shade of red.

The US is getting early access to the Google Assistant driving mode. Released on some Android devices, the features include telephony options to be accessible straight from maps without having to navigate different screens as well as having messages read out.

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