As a response to severe regulatory action, which reflects the efforts other countries are implementing to prohibit TikTok, it is rolling out age-verification measures in all of Europe using AI technologies to purge accounts below 13 years old.
A move by the ByteDance application, which only Reuters revealed on 16 January 2026, signals an attempt to produce more advanced detection in the aftermath of a pilot that took a year and has already removed thousands of child accounts globally.
New Tech Hunt
The advanced technology tracks user profiles, videos and behavioral patterns to indicate possible minors and pass the cases to seasoned moderators instead of banning them immediately.
The solution was built in partnership with the Data Protection Commission of Ireland in accordance with the strict European privacy laws, it is known that the international standard on age-verification (without the invasion of any data gathering) is still not established, and TikTok does not deny it.
They can be appealed through facial-recognition software offered by Yoti (with 99.3% success rate between 12-17 years old), through credit-card details, or through documents issued by the government. Meta also uses Yoti to verify users’ ages on Facebook.
Pressure Mounts
Governments sense the increasing urgency, as in 2023 the Information Commissioner Office of the UK had estimated that 1.4 million UK children under 13 age group were using TikTok in 2020, enough to trigger a £12.7 million pound fine against failing to comply with child data protection protocols.
Banning under the age of 16 in Australia initiated the removal of 4.7 million teenage accounts in the initial month, whereas Denmark admires the adoption of under 15 restrictions and the European parliament recommends age restrictions of 16 and above with parental permission under 13 and 16 years.
According to TikTok, in the third quarter of 2025, it removed more than 22 million suspected under 13 accounts globally. Nevertheless, the pilot studies show that the additions to the AI are adding thousands more in the UK alone.
Expert Take
TikTok said.
Despite extensive efforts, there is no globally agreed way to confirm a person’s age while preserving privacy
In most parts of the world, the minimum age to use TikTok is 13. We use a multi-layered approach to confirm someone’s age or detect when they may not actually be the age they say they are.
Outlook Ahead
The implementation of this technology means that there is a privacy-conscious transformation in the midst of the fact that 97% of the young people in the EU use the internet on a daily basis however the opponents insist that there should be a standard which will level up the playing field.
Regulatory penalties are likely to increase among trailing platforms and quickly eliminate underage users as well as technological competition are encouraged. TikTok is already at the forefront, yet the inquiry is whether other competitors will follow suit, before law bans emerge.
