TikTok will improve protections in Europe to prevent children under 13 from signing up.

BarcelonaFollowing a discreet pilot program in the UK, TikTok has announced it will implement a new age verification system in Europe to keep users under 13 off the app, as demanded by the EU. The algorithm will consider a range of factors related to account activity—such as the type of content viewed or posted—and in case of suspicion, a human expert will decide whether the account is deleted or remains on the service. In the UK, this methodology has already resulted in the removal of several thousand user profiles belonging to users under 13. Deletion will not be automatic, and users will have the right to attempt to prove they are over the age limit with a credit card, facial recognition analysis, or presentation of their ID. The company Yoti will act as an intermediary in these cases. The system will begin to be rolled out asymmetrically across different countries, and the news comes just as an awareness campaign is underway in Australia demanding that users under 16 be barred from the platform. The UK is also considering a similar ban. Until now, signing up for TikTok as a minor was as easy as entering a fake birthdate. The EU has long been calling for more effective filters. ByteDance, the Chinese company behind TikTok, has also explained that it plans additional measures for teenagers over the age of 13. It explained that those under 16 will not be able to send direct messages and that those under 18 will have a one-hour daily limit on their use of the short-video app.