TikTok will introduce technology to tighten age checks across Europe to keep under‑13s off the platform.
The social media platform said it would introduce the technology “in the coming weeks” as part of compliance and safety efforts amid regulatory pressure.
Owned by Chinese tech firm ByteDance, TikTok is one of the most popular social media apps, enabling users to watch, create and share short videos. It is known to be highly additive, with more than 1.6 billion people worldwide using it every month. In Europe alone, TikTok has more than 200 million monthly users – roughly one in three citizens on the continent.
With many of these users being teenagers, the firm has faced pressure under EU data protection and safety expectations to better identify and remove accounts belonging to children.
The firm said it has been piloting an age-detection system in the EU for the past year, which is now due to come into effect. It uses AI to analyse profile data, posted videos and behavioural signals...