Protecting Users Around the World: Quality Assurance Team in Action!

TikTok is committed to being an entertaining, informative platform for people from all backgrounds to enjoy – and the employees who make that happen are part of the Quality Assurance team. In Canada, TikTok is growing both tech and trust and safety teams, and doing vital work to protect children who use the platform. Cathy Shen, who is based out of the Vancouver office, spoke about her interest in internet application safety and the future of work at TikTok.

Shen, who has degrees in business administration and software engineering, joined the company due to her passion for working on innovative technology – "I'm definitely more of a computer person than a people person," she joked. She also liked the idea of creating features that ensured everyone has a place to express themselves and connect – something TikTok provides to over a billion monthly users. Her work building user interface features, or the parts of the platform that users personally interact with every day, is her favorite part of the job. "There is something really cool about building, testing, and then seeing the features rollout for all your friends, family, and millions of people to use."

Her true focus is working on features related to youth safety. As the mother of a young son, she believes that "it is crucial for our product, as it pertains to digital well-being, to ensure the safety of youth on our platform."

Youth safety is a large part of the work the company does to ensure overall user safety. The TikTok QA team works to protect children on the platform from being exposed to inappropriate content by applying both human moderation and machine learning training to safety policies. If content is violent, hateful, or violates TikTok's Community Guidelines, the features built by those in Quality Assurance can help to remove it - or prevent it from being seen at all.

"My job in QA is to make sure our features work as expected. So we build up automation test scripts for both the backend and frontend to improve testing efficiency, and we also have end-to-end testing to make sure users are getting the optimal experience." Personally ensuring the quality of a safety feature from start to finish is an example of TikTok's culture of ownership, something Shen greatly admires. "Getting to be a part of something like that, really having it belong to you, is one of my favorite parts of the company's culture. You have so many opportunities to lead. You're growing at the same time you're growing the product."

Most of the features her team works on are designed to "protect childrens well-being. For example, we've built features like Family Pairing," Shen says. "Parents can link accounts with their teenagers, and set limits for screen time, update privacy and security settings, and make choices about what content is best for their family."

She was excited to bring this level of protection to millions of Canadian TikTok users, as well as many other communities all over the world. In addition to Family Pairing, youth safety is elevated by TikTok's screen time management features, which allows users to set a 60-minute screen time limit on their child's account – which she makes sure to do with her son. "It's really valuable work. You get to protect people."

There are many positions open at the Vancouver office in quality assurance, tech, and more. Explore career opportunities in building a TikTok that's safe for all to create and be inspired every day.