\n<\/p>\n
As TikTok continues to face increased pressure in the U.S.<\/a> and the U.K.<\/a>, the company is signaling its commitment to fostering educational content on its app. The company announced on Tuesday that it\u2019s expanding its dedicated STEM feed across Europe, starting in the U.K. and Ireland, after first launching it in the U.S. last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n The STEM feed will begin to automatically appear alongside the \u201cFor You\u201d and \u201cFollowing\u201d feeds for users under the age of 18. Users above the age of 18 can enable the STEM feed via the app\u2019s \u201ccontent preferences\u201d settings. The feed includes English-speaking content with auto-translate subtitles.<\/p>\n TikTok says that since launching the feed in the U.S. last year, 33% of users have the STEM feed enabled and a third of teens go to the STEM feed every week. The app has seen a 24% growth in STEM-related content in the U.S. since the feed launched. Over the past three years, almost 15 million STEM-related videos have been published on the app globally.<\/p>\n The company is expanding its partnerships with Common Sense Networks<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Poynter<\/a> to assess all of the content appearing on the STEM feed. Common Sense Networks will examine the content to ensure it\u2019s appropriate for the STEM feed, while Poynter will assess the reliability of the information. Content that doesn\u2019t pass both of these checkpoints will not be eligible for the STEM feed.<\/p>\n The launch of the STEM feed comes as TikTok has been criticized<\/a> for showing harmful content to kids and teens, with rights groups alleging<\/a> that the app uses addictive design practices to keep users engaged for as long as possible.<\/p>\n