News summary produced by Claude AI
Ofcom, the United Kingdom’s online regulator, has initiated a formal investigation into TikTok regarding potential failures to safeguard children from harmful material. The inquiry focuses particularly on the platform’s age verification approach, which uses inference technology to estimate users’ ages rather than direct confirmation methods. According to Ofcom, this approach may have failed to accurately identify a significant portion of child users, potentially exposing them to inappropriate content including material related to disordered eating, self-harm, suicide, and pornography.
The investigation follows nearly a year of enforcement under the Online Safety Act, legislation designed to protect children from the most dangerous online content. TikTok states that it requires users to provide a date of birth during account creation and employs technology to detect indicators suggesting a user may not meet minimum age requirements. However, Ofcom has expressed serious doubts about the effectiveness of age inference models across multiple platforms and has called for companies using such techniques to transition to more reliable verification methods.
Potential penalties for non-compliance are substantial, with possible fines reaching £18 million or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue, whichever amount is larger. In the most severe cases, Ofcom retains authority to seek blocking or restricting of sites within the UK. The investigation occurs as the UK government prepares to implement a social media ban for users under 16 years old in early next year, which will intensify oversight of age verification techniques employed by technology companies.
Research indicates TikTok ranks as the third most-used platform among children aged 8 to 14, with young users spending approximately eight hours 45 minutes weekly on video-sharing platforms combined. Ofcom’s data also revealed that approximately one in 10 teenagers aged 15 to 17 were using major dating applications in December 2025 despite age verification systems being operational. Additionally, the regulator reported that roughly one-quarter of the United Kingdom’s most popular pornography services lack any age verification mechanisms, despite legal requirements imposed since the previous year.