TikTok Age Verification Under Investigation as UK Tightens Child Safety Rules

**Executive summary:** Ofcom has opened a formal investigation into TikTok's age-verification approach amid evidence that age-inference methods may fail to protect children; the report also documents increased use of age checks across services, ongoing enforcement against noncompliant adult sites, search-engine visibility issues for pornography without age assurance, and government plans to ban social media for under-16s with guidance on highly effective age assurance.