According to a report released by the UK social welfare organization “Global Witness” on Monday, even if TikTok users set their age to 13 and activate content restriction mode, TikTok still recommends search keywords and content with implicit sexual suggestions or highly sexualized content.
During the investigation, Global Witness set up seven TikTok accounts with the user’s age set to the platform’s minimum age of 13, using a phone with factory reset and no search history for testing purposes.
They found that even with the user’s age set to 13 and the “Restricted Mode” enabled on TikTok – which filters out content that may not be suitable for all audiences, including sexual suggestions – TikTok still pushed “highly sexualized” search suggestions and related content to the test accounts.
The report highlighted that it is concerning not only that TikTok displays pornographic content to minors but also that TikTok’s search algorithm actively guides minors toward pornographic content.
These search suggestions contradict TikTok’s age policy, exposing flaws in the platform’s algorithm in protecting underage users.
Additionally, TikTok’s community guidelines prohibit any nudity, sexual acts, sexual services involving minors, as well as sexual suggestions or extensively revealing content.
In response, TikTok stated that upon learning of the report’s allegations, they immediately launched an investigation, removed violating content, and improved the search suggestion feature. The platform claimed to be committed to providing a safe and age-appropriate user experience, noting that 90% of violating videos are removed before being viewed.
TikTok mentioned that about 30% of the removed content involved sensitive or mature themes. Furthermore, the platform deletes around 6 million underage accounts monthly through technology detection and review team training to identify and prevent children under 13 from using TikTok.
However, according to the report, three of Global Witness’ test accounts received sexual suggestion search recommendations the first time users clicked on the search bar, and all seven test accounts were exposed to pornographic content after only a few clicks following account setup.
At the time of the report’s release, new child safety regulations in the UK Online Safety Act came into effect at the end of July. Lawyer Mark Stephens noted in the report that the investigation results “clearly violate” this law.
Prior to this, TikTok also faced a lawsuit filed last year, accusing the platform of causing harm to the mental health of young users.
(Reference: CNN reporting)