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Per findings from a new study, TikTok has been discovered to steer profiles of minors to adult videos within a small number of clicks.

Research Methodology

Global Witness created fake accounts using a 13-year-old's birth date and turned on the app's "restricted mode", which is designed to reduce exposure to adult-oriented content.

Study authors discovered that TikTok recommended sexually charged search terms to multiple test profiles that were established on new devices with no search history.

Troubling Search Prompts

Search phrases suggested under the "you may like" feature featured "very very rude skimpy outfits" and "very rude babes" – and then progressed to keywords such as "explicit adult videos".

Regarding three of the accounts, the inappropriate search terms were suggested immediately.

Fast Track to Adult Material

Following just a few taps, the investigators came across explicit material ranging from revealing content to graphic sexual acts.

Global Witness stated that the content tried to bypass filters, often by presenting the content within an innocuous picture or video.

Regarding one profile, the process took two taps after accessing the app: one click on the search bar and then a second on the suggested search.

Regulatory Context

The climate organization, whose scope includes researching technology companies' influence on public safety, stated it carried out multiple testing phases.

Initial tests occurred prior to the activation of safeguarding regulations under the UK's Online Safety Act on July 25th, and additional tests following the measures took effect.

Concerning Discoveries

The organization noted that multiple clips included someone who looked like they were below the age of consent and had been reported to the Internet Watch Foundation, which tracks harmful material involving minors.

The campaign group alleged that TikTok was in non-compliance of the digital protection law, which mandates social media firms to stop children from accessing dangerous material such as explicit content.

Regulatory Response

A communications officer for Ofcom, which is tasked with regulating the act, stated: "We appreciate the work behind this study and will analyze its findings."

The regulator's guidelines for adhering to the legislation indicate that online services that carry a substantial threat of showing harmful content must "modify their programming" to remove harmful content from minors' content streams.

TikTok's content guidelines prohibit adult videos.

Company Reaction

The social media company announced that after being contacted from the research group, it had taken down the offending videos and introduced modifications to its search recommendations.

"As soon as we were made aware of these assertions, we took immediate action to investigate them, take down videos that violated our policies, and launch improvements to our search prompt functionality," stated a company representative.