UK investigates TikTok for alleged age-verification lapses, exposing kids to online harms
“Age checks are a cornerstone of the UK’s online safety laws,” said Ofcom’s Chief Executive, Melanie Dawes. “Too many services have no or inadequate age checks in place, which is not good enough.”
TikTok is under investigation for allegedly failing to effectively verify users’ ages and thus inadequately protecting children online, the U.K.’s communications regulator announced Wednesday.
Ofcom alleges that the social media platform may be violating Britain’s Online Safety Act.
Age inference models, including those TikTok deploys, may have “failed to correctly identify a significant proportion of children, putting them at risk of exposure to harmful content,” Ofcom said in a press release.
Source: https://therecord.media/ofcom-investigation-tiktok-age-verification
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