In a significant move, TikTok is set to enhance its age-verification technology across the European Union in the upcoming weeks. This decision comes amid rising calls for social media restrictions similar to those recently implemented in Australia, which would ban users under the age of 16 in countries like the UK.
Owned by ByteDance, TikTok, alongside other widely-used platforms among younger audiences such as YouTube, is facing mounting pressure to more effectively identify and eliminate accounts that belong to minors. The new verification system, which has been tested in the EU over the last year, evaluates various factors including profile details, uploaded videos, and user behavior to determine if an account likely belongs to someone younger than 13.
Interestingly, rather than automatically banning flagged accounts, TikTok has stated that these will be assessed by specialized moderators, allowing for some accounts to remain after review. This UK pilot program has already resulted in the removal of thousands of accounts deemed inappropriate.
In parallel, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, utilizes the age verification service Yoti to confirm the ages of Facebook users.
Australia recently enacted a ban on social media for individuals under 16 years old, and according to the country’s eSafety commissioner, over 4.7 million accounts have been eliminated across ten different platforms—including TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Snap, and Facebook—since this prohibition went into effect on December 10.
The introduction of TikTok's new system aligns with ongoing scrutiny from European authorities regarding how platforms are ensuring compliance with age verification under existing data protection laws.
Recently, UK Labour leader Keir Starmer expressed his openness to instituting a similar ban for young people in the UK, citing concerns over the excessive time children and teens are spending on their smartphones. Starmer highlighted alarming reports of five-year-olds spending countless hours in front of screens daily, voicing serious concerns about the potential harm social media could inflict on those under 16.
Historically, Starmer has resisted outright bans on social media for minors, arguing that such measures could be challenging to enforce and might inadvertently channel teenagers toward more dangerous online spaces like the dark web.
This month, Ellen Roome, whose 14-year-old son Jools Sweeney tragically passed away following an online challenge, advocated for greater parental rights to access deceased children's social media accounts.
Meanwhile, the European Parliament is actively pushing for age restrictions on social media usage, while Denmark is advocating for a ban on access for individuals under 15 years old.
TikTok has informed Reuters that its new technology has been specifically designed to align with the EU’s regulatory standards. During its development, the company collaborated with Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, the primary privacy regulator for the EU.
A Guardian investigation in 2023 uncovered that TikTok moderators had been instructed to allow under-13s to maintain accounts if they claimed parental supervision.
