TikTok Steps Up Child Safety Efforts, Removes 25 Million Suspected Underage Accounts

• TikTok removed around 25 million accounts globally in the first quarter of 2026 over suspicions that their users were under 13.
• The platform also removed more than 86 million fake accounts worldwide during the same period.
• More than 22 million videos were removed in Pakistan for violating TikTok’s Community Guidelines.
• TikTok says protecting young users requires cooperation between platforms, parents, educators, policymakers and communities.

TikTok has stepped up efforts to prevent underage children from using its platform, removing around 25 million accounts worldwide during the first quarter of 2026 that it suspected belonged to users below the age of 13.

Keeping children off social media platforms for which they do not meet the minimum age requirement remains a major challenge, particularly because users can enter a different date of birth while creating an account. TikTok says it is addressing the problem through a combination of technology, user reports and other signals rather than relying solely on the age entered during registration.

TikTok does not currently provide its user data directly to the media. However, DataReportal estimated that the platform had approximately 79.9 million users aged 18 and above in Pakistan in late 2025.

Speaking to the media, TikTok Regional Trust and Safety Manager Muhammad Usman Mahmood said the company removed more than 86 million fake accounts globally during the first three months of 2026.

In addition to those fake accounts, he said TikTok removed more than 25 million accounts suspected of belonging to children under 13, in accordance with the platform’s minimum-age requirements.

TikTok also took significant enforcement action against content posted in Pakistan. According to Mahmood, more than 22 million videos were removed in the country during the same quarter for violating the platform’s Community Guidelines.

He said 99.6% of the violating content was proactively detected and removed by TikTok, meaning it was identified before users reported it. Meanwhile, 95.5% of the content was removed within the first 24 hours.

The two figures represent separate aspects of TikTok’s enforcement system. The proactive removal rate measures how much violating content was identified without relying on user reports, while the second figure indicates the speed at which such content was taken down.

Mahmood said protecting young people remained one of TikTok’s highest priorities, but determining whether an account belongs to an underage user involves more than simply checking the date of birth provided during sign-up.

TikTok’s age-assurance system uses multiple indicators, including technology, reports submitted by users and other signals that may suggest an account is being operated by someone below the platform’s minimum age. According to Mahmood, these indicators are carefully reviewed before enforcement action is taken against an account.

Beyond underage access, teenagers in Pakistan face a wider range of online safety concerns. Mahmood identified cyberbullying, unwanted contact, scams, misinformation, inappropriate content and unhealthy screen-time habits among the risks young people may encounter online.

He stressed that social media companies cannot address these challenges alone and said online child safety requires a broader collective effort.

According to TikTok, responsibility for creating a safer digital environment must be shared among technology platforms, parents, educators, policymakers and the wider community, particularly as young people spend an increasing amount of time online.