Ofcom Launches Investigation Into TikTok Over UK Child Safety Failures

Britain’s media regulator Ofcom has opened a formal investigation into TikTok’s child safety practices.

The probe was launched on Thursday to determine whether TikTok’s UK unit has failed, or is failing, to protect children from harmful content, as per Reuters.

The investigation will examine whether the platform can reliably identify underage users and whether it has systems capable of stopping them from encountering harmful material.

The move follows growing pressure on TikTok since Ofcom concluded in May that the company had not set out meaningful steps to protect British children online.

What Ofcom Is Investigating

As Reuters reports, the probe centers on two connected questions: whether TikTok has measures to assess if a particular user is a child, and whether it has adequate systems to prevent identified children from viewing harmful content.

BBC reports TikTok relies on age inference, which analyzes user activity and behavior to estimate whether someone is a child or an adult instead of directly verifying age, a stricter measure employed recently by Discord.

Ofcom has previously said this system may have failed to identify a significant proportion of children on the platform.

Reuters notes the investigation does not mean Ofcom has concluded TikTok breached its duties, and the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mounting Pressure Under the Online Safety Act

The investigation follows months of regulatory scrutiny. The Online Safety Act, passed in October 2023, requires platforms to use age checks to identify child users and protect them from harmful content.

In May, Ofcom found TikTok and YouTube were failing to keep recommendation feeds safe for children, even as rivals Snap, Meta, and Roblox, which now has a dedicated child account option, agreed to new anti-grooming protections.

TikTok has publicly pushed back on the criticism. A spokesperson told BBC that the company enforces age-appropriate experiences through expert-informed policies and advanced age inference technology. 

He added that the company has invested billions of pounds in UK platform safety over the past eight years and remains confident it complies with the Online Safety Act.

Penalties, Enforcement Powers, and the Under-16 Ban

If Ofcom finds TikTok breached its legal duties, it can impose reported fines of up to £18 million or 10% of the company’s qualifying worldwide revenue. The regulator can also seek a court order requiring internet service providers to restrict access to the platform in the UK.

The probe comes a month after the government announced a blanket social media ban for anyone under 16, alongside new restrictions on gaming and livestreaming platforms, Reuters reports. 

The ban takes effect in Spring 2027 and will apply to social media platforms including TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and X.

TikTok faced Ofcom enforcement back in 2024, including a £1.875 million fine for submitting inaccurate information about its parental control features, highlighting the platform’s ongoing scrutiny over child safety compliance.

Source: UK regulator to probe TikTok on child safety measures