On Friday, TikTok announced that they will roll out a new AI powered age verification system across Europe in the coming weeks.
The social media platform moves to identify and remove users under the age of 13 comes from regulatory pressure from European governments, who are demanding stricter adherence to data protections rules for minors.
Other governments globally have also continued to scrutinize how tech companies verify users' ages.
This is coming after, the company was fined €345 million ($376 million) in 2023 specifically for violating (General Data Protection Regulation) GDPR rules regarding children's data. The data protection policy protects minors from unnecessary collection of personal information and ensure that age verification is for safety purposes only.
In a press statement, the company acknowledged the difficulty of the task, framing the new tool as a necessary compromise.
“Despite extensive efforts, there is no globally agreed way to confirm a person's age while preserving privacy....The prediction of the likelihood that someone is under the likelihood of 13 is not used for purposes other than to decide whether to send an account to human moderators,” TikTok stated.
The ByteDance-owned platform said the new system, which follows a year-long pilot program in Britain, analyses profile information, published content, and behavioural signals to the real age of its users.
While the new AI age verification tool will act as a digital bouncer, TikTok has confirmed its age verification system won't have the final say. This is in a bid to avoid the kind of algorithmic overreach that often plagues automated moderation. TikTok says that accounts flagged by the system will not be instantly purged. Instead, they will be routed to a team of specialist human moderators for a final review.
The system specifically targets users in the UK, Switzerland, and the European Economic Area (EEA). For users who do get caught in the dragnet, the platform is introducing a robust appeals process, partnering with digital identity firm, Yoti to verify ages without storing permanent ID records.
If an account is suspended, the user can regain access by providing government-issued ID, authorizing a temporary credit card charge, or using Yoti’s facial age estimation technology. The latter scans a user's face to estimate their age instantly, offering a privacy-preserving alternative to uploading sensitive documents.
This enforcement shows governments are no longer willing to let tech companies regulate themselves.
The UK pilot of this system resulted in the removal of thousands of underage accounts, a statistic TikTok is now using to prove its technology works to regulators in Brussels.
However, some politicians argue that these measures may be a little too late.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen puts it bluntly: “We have unleashed a monster.”
For families, her words are a reflection of daily concerns, from cyberbullying to exposure to unsafe content, that they feel powerless to stop.
Meanwhile, Australia has already enacted a world-first ban on social media for children under 16. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the move as a necessity, stating, "Enough is enough," in a recent press conference. And Denmark is debating similar legislation.
By deploying age verification system now, TikTok is attempting to show it can police its borders before stricter laws force its hand.
Ejiro Onose
