Britain’s media regulator, Ofcom, has opened an investigation into TikTok to determine whether its UK operation failed or is failing to adequately protect children from harmful online content.
The probe comes a month after the government introduced a nationwide ban on social media use for children under 16 and imposed tighter restrictions on gaming and live-streaming platforms.
As part of the investigation, Ofcom will examine whether TikTok has effective measures to verify if a user is a child, as well as sufficient systems to prevent young users from accessing harmful content.
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In May, the regulator said TikTok had not outlined meaningful steps to safeguard British children from harmful material online.
However, Ofcom stressed that launching the investigation does not mean it has concluded that TikTok breached its legal obligations.
TikTok rejected the allegations, saying: “We strictly enforce age-appropriate experiences through expert-informed platform rules and advanced age inference technologies, in line with major industry peers,” a company spokesperson said in a statement emailed to Reuters.
The spokesperson added: “We are confident that we meet our Online Safety Act obligations and will work with Ofcom to demonstrate this.”
