Age Verification Reaches Global Enrichment Point. Is TikTok’s Strategy a Good Compromise?
Governments all over the world are like that we are trying to limit children’s access to social media as lawmakers question whether platforms can enforce their minimum age requirements. TikTok recently became the latest tech giant to bow to regulatory pressure when it announced it would implement a new age verification system across Europe to keep children under 13 off the platform.
The system, which follows a year-long pilot in the UK aimed at identifying and removing young users, relies on a combination of profile data, content analysis, and behavioral signals to assess whether an account may belong to a minor. (TikTok requires users to be at least 13 to sign up). According to the company’s statement, its age detection system does not automatically block users. The system flags accounts it suspects are owned by users under the age of 13 and refers those accounts to human moderators for review. TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.
The European ban comes amid global debate about the negative effects of social media on children, and as governments oppose tougher age-based controls. Australia last year became the first country to ban social media for children under 16, including the use of Instagram, YouTube, Snap, and TikTok. The European Parliament is also advocating for mandatory age limits, while Denmark and Malaysia are considering bans on children under 16.
“We are in the middle of an experiment where the American and Chinese bullies have unlimited access to the care of our children and young people for many hours every day without supervision,” said Christel Schaldemose, a Danish lawmaker who is also the vice president of the European Parliament, in November during the parliament that, according to Reuters, “asked for the blocking of the entire EU, the Internet access of 16 children and the Asha sites that are outside the Internet. parental consent and outright prohibition for under 13s.”
Advocacy groups in Canada are also calling for the creation of a dedicated regulatory body to deal with online harm affecting young people following deep-seated sex abuse on X by its AI chatbot Grok. ChatGPT recently announced that it was releasing age prediction software to determine whether an account may belong to someone under the age of 18 so that appropriate protections can be implemented. In the US, 25 states have enacted some form of age verification law.
“Legislators in the US, in the calendar year of 2026, are likely to pass dozens or possibly hundreds of new laws requiring online age verification,” said Eric Goldman, a law professor and associate director at Santa Clara University who argued that any “government-mandated test” should automatically be considered “constitutional.”
“Unless something changes dramatically,” Goldman said, “regulators around the world are building a legal infrastructure that will require most websites and apps to be age-approved.”
As platforms work to better address age verification, does TikTok’s strategy of monitoring users rather than outright banning children seem like a positive step back? That depends on how you feel about digital surveillance.
“This is a good way to say that TikTok will be looking at the activities of its users and thinking about them,” said Goldman. Because field governance is often tied to political goals, and policy solutions sometimes expose children to more harm than good, Goldman refers to age-affirmation mandates as “separate and oppressive laws.”
“Users are likely unhappy with this extra oversight, and any false signals—such as misidentifying an adult as a child—will have potential consequences for the misidentified user.” Goldman adds that while this is the right approach for TikTok, most services don’t have enough data about their users to guess people’s ages, so the approach is not as bad as other platforms.
