TikTok removed more than 7 million accounts it suspected belonged to underage users in the first quarter of this year - taking a significant step toward enforcing age requirements.
According to TikTok, the deleted profiles accounted for fewer than 1% of its worldwide users.
TikTok, which is wildly popular with young smartphone users, also said it took down almost 62 million videos in the first quarter for violating community standards, including "hateful" content, harassment or nudity.
Known in China as Douyin, TikTok is a China video-sharing social networking service owned by ByteDance.
It is believed to have more than 1 billion users worldwide, including more than 100 million in the U.S.
TikTok said it has introduced several measures to protect users, especially teenagers, on the platform. These measures include limitations on features such as livestreaming and private messaging to users aged 16 and above.
The New York Times reported in August last year that a third of the company's users in the U.S. are 14 years old or younger.
In January, TikTok said it would make all accounts for users under 16 default to private. The app also offers a "curated viewing experience" for younger users, CNET reported.
The information was part of a transparency report, which details how TikTok enforces its policies. The report also included the company's efforts to combat disinformation around the ongoing world health crisis.
"To bring more visibility to the actions we take to protect minors, in this report we added the number of accounts removed for potentially belonging to an underage person," Cormac Keenan, TikTok director of trust and safety, said according to the BBC.
In 2019, TikTok was ordered to pay the U.S. Federal Trade Commission a record $5.7 million fine for illegally collecting children's information, including names, locations, and email addresses of children who used the app, Bloomberg said.
One of the challenges TikTok faces that is not different to other forms of social media is "verifying the age of users," Chris Stokel-Walker, author of TikTok Boom, said.
