TikTok is undeniably one of the most trending social media apps today among youngsters, especially during this pandemic. Like many other apps, TikTok has its own age restriction considering the existence of “inappropriate” content here and there. Users must be at least 13 years old and above in order to join the others on the platform.
However, the app just recently released its Q1 2021 Transparency Report that covers from January to March. “For the first time, we're publishing the number of suspected underage accounts removed as we work to keep the full TikTok experience a place for people 13 and over,” said in the report. Surprisingly, among a total of 11,149,514 accounts removed for violating the app’s Community Guidelines or Terms or Service, a whopping 7,263,952 of them were “suspected underage accounts”. While the figure is high, TikTok claimed that it only made up less than 1% of all the existing users.
The company encouraged users below the age of 13 to sign up for TikTok for Younger Users, another version of the platform which provides additional safeguards and privacy protections.
TikTok also rolled out special privacy settings for teens back in January 2021. The new default settings for users aged 13 - 15 is private and there are restrictions on who can download their videos and engage with their content, while users aged 16 - 17 share similar settings.
