UK investigates TikTok for alleged age-verification lapses, exposing kids to online harms

UK investigates TikTok for alleged age-verification lapses, exposing kids to online harms

TikTok is under investigation for allegedly failing to effectively verify users’ ages and thus inadequately protecting children online, the U.K.’s communications regulator announced Wednesday.

Ofcom alleges that the social media platform may be violating Britain’s Online Safety Act.

Age inference models, including those TikTok deploys, may have “failed to correctly identify a significant proportion of children, putting them at risk of exposure to harmful content,” Ofcom said in a press release.

TikTok’s procedures may have failed to correctly estimate the ages of “a significant proportion of children,” Ofcom said.

TikTok and other social media firms rely primarily on age inference methods even though the Online Safety Act does not include the tool on a list of “highly effective” age verification models companies are required to use, according to Ofcom. Age inference tech works not by directly verifying a person’s age with ID, biometrics or document submission, but by analyzing users’ browsing habits, online interactions and other internet activity.

Ofcom has “particular concerns” about TikTok’s age assurance practices, according to the press release.

“Our message to social media companies is clear: those which use age inference models to comply with their child protection duties should switch to other methods listed in our guidance as highly effective without delay,” Ofcom said.

Under the Online Safety Act, companies violating the rules can be fined £18 million ($21 million) or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue. In cases of egregious conduct, the British government also can attempt to ban sites and platforms from operating in the country.

The Online Safety Act includes pornography and posts about suicide and eating disorders in its checklist for harmful content.

“Age checks are a cornerstone of the UK’s online safety laws,” Ofcom’s Chief Executive, Melanie Dawes, said in a statement. “Too many services have no or inadequate age checks in place, which is not good enough.”

The U.K.’s current Labour Party government wants to bar children under 16 from social media. The proposed legislation will apply to “user-to-user platforms” like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube and Snapchat if lawmakers approve it. The government plans to send it to Parliament before Christmas, officials said.

Ofcom plans to send Parliament an analysis of what “highly effective age checks look like in practice,” the regulator said.

The coming social media restrictions will require even more robust age checks, which Dawes said are “already shifting towards a stronger, whole-of-system approach.”

A spokesperson for TikTok said in a statement that the company “strictly enforce[s] age-appropriate experiences through expert-informed platform rules and advanced age inference technologies, in line with major industry peers.”

“In the eight years since TikTok launched in the UK, we have invested billions in platform safety,” the statement said. “We are confident that we meet our Online Safety Act obligations and will work with Ofcom to demonstrate this."

Ofcom will update the public on the status of the investigation in October.