OFCOM has launched an urgent probe into TikTok after finding the social media firm was “failing to protect children” on its site.
The watchdog will examine whether the site is compliant with the Online Safety Act – after a review found “overwhelming evidence of harm”.
The industry regulator will probe whether age checks are sufficient enough to help young users avoid harmful content Credit: Alamy
The watchdog will examine whether the site is compliant with the Online Safety Act Credit: Getty
According to the Online Safety Act, which was passed in October 2023, social media firms that don’t ban harmful content must use age checks.
This helps identify which users are underage and protect them from viewing harmful posts, such as self-harm and suicide content.
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TikTok uses “age inference”, which examines a person’s activity on the site to estimate their age.
The industry regulator will now probe whether the checks are sufficient enough to help young users avoid harmful content.
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Ofcom said: “This investigation will seek to establish whether there are reasonable grounds to believe that TikTok has failed, or is failing, to comply with its legal obligations.
“The opening of an investigation does not mean that Ofcom has reached any conclusion about whether the provider has breached its duties.”
The watchdog can impose fines of up to £18m or 10% of the firm’s worldwide revenue if failures are identified.
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 is not done and tech companies need to go further.
“Too many services have no or inadequate age checks in place, which is not good enough.
“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.”
It comes as social media curfews are set to be imposed on 16 and 17-year-olds under a wider crackdown.
Ministers insist it “strikes a balance” from the planned ban for all under-16s.
But the move was branded “a dog’s dinner” by critics, as users will be able to disable the restrictions as they wish.
Under the plans, all 16 and 17-year-olds will have social media disabled between midnight and 6am — unless they opt out.
Addictive doomscrolling features, where videos play continuously, will also be automatically switched off for older teens under the scheme.
