OTTAWA, Canada – TikTok has agreed to introduce stronger safeguards to keep children off its platform after a Canadian investigation concluded the video-sharing app’s efforts to block underage users and protect their personal data were insufficient.
The joint probe by Canada’s federal privacy commissioner Philippe Dufresne and his counterparts in Quebec, British Columbia, and Alberta found that hundreds of thousands of Canadian children under 13 accessed TikTok each year despite company rules prohibiting their use.
Investigators also determined the platform had collected sensitive personal information from minors and used it for targeted advertising and content curation.
“TikTok collects vast amounts of personal information about its users, including children. This data is being used to target the content and ads that users see, which can have harmful impacts, particularly on youth,” Dufresne said at a Tuesday press conference.
In response, TikTok has committed to strengthening its age-verification processes, improving transparency around data use, and ensuring its privacy policies are easier for young people to understand.
The company also agreed to restrict advertisers from targeting users under 18, apart from broad categories like language and location, and to expand privacy information available to Canadians.
A TikTok spokesperson welcomed the outcome, saying the commissioners had accepted several of the company’s proposals “to further strengthen” its protections.
However, the company pushed back against parts of the findings. “While we disagree with some of the findings, we remain committed to maintaining strong transparency and privacy practices,” the spokesperson said, without elaborating on which conclusions it disputed.
The move places Canada among a growing list of governments tightening scrutiny of the Chinese-owned platform.
Authorities in the United States and European Union have already restricted TikTok use on government devices over fears Beijing could exploit the app for surveillance or political influence.
Ottawa has separately been reviewing TikTok’s investment plans in Canada since 2023.
That review resulted in a national security order to end its operations in the country — a directive TikTok is currently challenging.
