As the government’s social media ban approaches, TikTok has joined the other social media giants, chiming in about how its verification system will work.
There’s no stopping December 10, and there seems to be no stopping the Social Media Minimum Age rules set to arrive that day. With the deadline only a few days away, the country’s biggest social media providers are revealing what happens next.
Meta has already talked up what under 16s will experience with Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, and Snapchat has an age verification system rolling out at present.
YouTube has added what it will be doing, simply shutting down access to accounts rather than verifying altogether, and TikTok is next, opting to verify for account holders with accounts aged 13 to 15.
The system will use a combination of age verification approaches, including facial age estimation, government ID, and even credit card authorisation. TikTok hasn’t said if a combination of these is required, and it’s highly possible if a teen uses someone else’s face as an estimate, the social media service will use that.
In fact, TikTok notes that could be possible, stating in its release on the matter:
If someone uses an appeal method that relies on an external partner, like facial age estimation, we only receive the age estimate.
and
We also encourage parents to have conversations with their teens to make sure they have been truthful about their age.
From the looks of things, TikTok’s process will go into effect from December 10, hitting accounts under the age of 16 and becoming inactive. After a teen turns 16, however, the account will be reinstated and reactivated again.
As to whether all kids and teens using the system will verify using their own face, that remains to be seen.
But with parents being told by the government that neither them nor their kids will be penalised if they find a way to retain accounts throughout this process, it wouldn’t be terribly surprising if some people looked for other ways to keep accounts going.
