TikTok will roll out its promised new age restriction system in the coming weeks, with a Content Levels feature designed to protect children from mature or potentially harmful clips.

I will introduce an "early version" feature of the feature which will prevent users aged 13 to 17 from accessing videos that are tagged as containing mature or "complex themes".

TikTok itself will mark content with a maturity score and, if a younger member tries to access anything deemed 18 or above, they will be prevented from seeing it.

"When we detect that a video contains mature or complex themes, for example, fictional scenes that may be too frightening or intense for younger audiences, a maturity score will be allocated to the video to help prevent those under 18 from viewing it across the TikTok experience," it wrote in a recent blog post.

"We have focused on further safeguarding the teen experience first and in the coming months we plan to add new functionality to provide detailed content filtering options for our entire community so they can enjoy more of what they love."

Content Levels seem to be in addition to the self-moderation functionality TikTok is testing with contect creators. This will allow them to mark their own videos as unsuitable for children.