Ofcom, the UK's communications regulator, is investigating TikTok's child safety measures
The regulator is assessing whether the platform is doing enough to protect children from harmful content.
Concerns that TikTok might be failing in its duties relating to the safeguarding of children on its platform have prompted the UK's communications regulator, Ofcom, to launch an investigation into the platform. Specifically, the regulator is looking at whether TikTok has failed, or is currently failing, to comply with requirements outlined in Section 12 of the Online Safety Act 2023. This section refers to the mitigation and management of the risks of harm to children online, and how successfully they are prevented from encountering harmful content.
Platforms like TikTok are also required to use effective age verification or estimation (or both) systems to ensure children don't come into contact with harmful content. A new separate Ofcom report questions the effectiveness of TikTok's age inference method, which essentially guesses how old the user is based on how they engage with the platform, as opposed to requiring formal documentation to check their age.
TikTok updated its age verification rules at the beginning of 2026, when it reinforced its commitment to keeping children under the age of 13 off the platform. When setting up an account, users are required to first enter their birthdate, and if in doing so they fail to meet the minimum age requirements, they're suspended from immediately trying to set up an account again using a different age.
TikTok says it then carries out "multiple checks" to ensure a user is old enough, including the age inference model now being investigated by Ofcom. This also looks at profile information and published videos, with suspect accounts reviewed by a moderator. It says a European pilot of the system successfully removed thousands of underage accounts from the platform. TikTok also allows anyone to report an account they suspect does not meet the minimum age regulations, and they themselves don't need an account to do so.
Ofcom says it has "already ruled out" age inference as a highly effective system for porn sites and other sites that shouldn't be hosting children, largely because to be applied it needs to observe the child's behavior on the platform for enough time to make an informed decision. In this sense it isn't really preventing underage access at all.
The regulator has stressed that no conclusions about TikTok have been made, but compliance failures are punishable with fines of up to £18 million (around $24 million) or 10 percent of "qualifying worldwide revenue" if that figure is greater. In more serious cases, a court order can be issued that requires third parties, such as advertisers, to "take action to disrupt the business of the provider."
"We strictly enforce age-appropriate experiences through expert-informed platform rules and advanced age inference technologies, in line with major industry peers," a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement to Engadget. "In the eight years since TikTok launched in the UK, we have invested billions in platform safety. We are confident that we meet our Online Safety Act obligations and will work with Ofcom to demonstrate this."
Ofcom has been putting pressure on a number of social networks it believes need to do more to protect minors. Back in May, Meta, Snap and Roblox committed to tougher anti-grooming measures in the UK. TikTok and YouTube were also emailed by the regulator, but did not commit to "any significant changes" at the time. The UK intends to ban children under the age of 16 from using social media apps like Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and X starting next year.