Ofcom Probes TikTok Over Child Safety Failures, Threatening Fines of Up to 10% Revenue
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Jul 16
Ofcom Probes TikTok Over Child Safety Failures, Threatening Fines of Up to 10% Revenue
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jul 16
Summary
Ofcom said TikTok may have misidentified a significant share of child users through age-inference tools, potentially exposing them to self-harm, suicide, eating-disorder and pornographic content.
£18 million or 10% of qualifying global revenue could be at stake if the regulator finds breaches of the Online Safety Act; in the most serious cases, Ofcom can seek to block or restrict services in the UK.
TikTok said it requires date-of-birth entry, uses additional signals to detect underage users, bans content promoting disordered eating and is confident it complies with UK rules.
One in 10 UK teenagers aged 15 to 17 were still using the three biggest dating apps in December 2025 despite age checks, reinforcing Ofcom's warning that inference-based systems can miss children.
The probe lands as Britain prepares an under-16 social media ban next year and as Ofcom presses Google and Bing over search results leading to porn sites without age checks.