Move comes as calls for Australia-style social media ban for under-16s grow around world
TikTok will begin to roll out new age-verification technology across the EU in the coming weeks, as calls for an Australia-style social media ban for under-16s grow in countries including the UK.
ByteDance-owned TikTok, and other major platforms popular with young people such as YouTube, are coming under increasing pressure to better identify and remove accounts belonging to children.
The system, which has been quietly piloted in the EU over the past year, analyses profile information, posted videos and behavioural signals to predict whether an account may be belong to a user under the age of 13.
TikTok said accounts flagged by the system will be reviewed by specialist moderators rather than face an automatic ban, and may then be removed. The UK pilot led to the removal of thousands of accounts.
