Ofcom’s TikTok Probe: Check Your Child’s Age Today

Ofcom, the UK’s online safety regulator, has opened an investigation into whether TikTok is meeting its duties under the Online Safety Act to protect children from harmful content. Part of that work looks at whether TikTok’s age checks are effective enough to tell which users are children. You don’t need to wait for the outcome. The most useful thing you can do now is check the age on your child’s account and the protections switched on in the app.

What Ofcom is looking at

Ofcom’s October 2026 industry bulletin confirmed that it opened the investigation in July. It is examining whether TikTok protects children from harmful content and whether its age assurance is highly effective at identifying who is a child. In plain terms, the regulator wants to know whether TikTok can reliably work out who is under 18 and then give those users the right protections.

The investigation is still open. Ofcom has not found that TikTok has broken the rules. What it does tell you is that the regulator considers the question important enough to test properly.

Why the age on the account matters

Most platforms, TikTok included, rely on the birthday a person types in when they sign up. A child who wants an adult account can type a different year. If that happens, the protections built for under-18s may never apply to them.

Watch for these warning signs that the account doesn’t match your child’s real age:

• Adverts or videos aimed at adults keep appearing in their feed.
• They can use features you thought were blocked, such as direct messages.
• Their profile shows an age of 18 or over, but they are clearly younger.
• They mention friends or content that only seem to be open to older users.

TikTok’s minimum age in the UK is 13. If your child is under 13 and has an account, talk to them about it first, then ask TikTok to close the account through its help centre.

Check the age on your child’s account

1. Open TikTok on your child’s phone and tap Profile in the bottom right.