The watchdog will investigate whether the social media giant is compliant with the Online Safety Act, which protects children and adults online
Ofcom has launched an urgent investigation into TikTok about whether it’s protecting kids from accessing harmful content. The watchdog will investigate whether the social media giant is compliant with the Online Safety Act, which protects children and adults online.
The 2023 Act requires platforms to prevent children from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content using age checks. TikTok uses ‘age inference’, which examines a users’ site activity to guess their age.
Ofcom said it had ‘particular concerns’ about the effectiveness of TikTok’s approach to age assurance and whether it’s robust enough to protect kids from harmful content. It also said that ‘more action is needed’ to increase the effectiveness of age checks to protect children online, particularly ahead of the government’s plans to restrict under 16s’ use of social media.
Ofcom’s Chief Executive, Dame Melanie Dawes, said: “Age checks are a cornerstone of the UK’s online safety laws. “When implemented properly, our evidence shows that age checks are helping to create a safer life online for children in the UK.
“But the job isn’t done and tech companies need to go further. Too many services have no or inadequate age checks in place, which isn’t good enough. “Today we’ve launched an investigation into whether TikTok’s age checks are effective in preventing children from seeing harmful content on its platform.
“And search engines must urgently work with us to solve the problem of children finding porn sites without age checks too easily via their results pages. “As the UK prepares for further new social media restrictions at 16, the age check landscape is already shifting towards a stronger, whole-of-system approach, which is important to avoid any single point of failure.
“We want to see continued innovation from the wider tech industry to strengthen protections for children – including from operating systems and at an app store and device-level.” A TikTok spokesperson said: “We strictly enforce age-appropriate experiences through advanced age inference technologies and expert-informed platform rules in line with major industry peers.
“In the eight years since TikTok launched in the UK, we have invested billions in platform safety. “We’re confident that we meet our Online Safety Act obligations and will work with Ofcom to demonstrate this.”
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