Privacy watchdogs say TikTok’s efforts to protect kids were ‘inadequate’

OTTAWA — TikTok’s efforts to keep children off the platform and prevent the collection and use of their sensitive personal information were “inadequate,” but the company is taking steps to address those concerns, federal and provincial privacy authorities said Tuesday.

The federal, Quebec, Alberta and B.C. privacy commissioners released the results of their joint investigation into TikTok, which they launched in 2023. They said hundreds of thousands of Canadian children use TikTok each year and the company collects and uses their personal information.

Federal privacy commissioner Philippe Dufresne told reporters on Parliament Hill that TikTok is one of the most popular social media apps in the country and “the one that is most used by Canadian children and teens.”

He noted the company “uses the information that it collects, including biometric information, to estimate users’ age for its own business purposes.”

The report concluded that the platform didn’t adequately explain to users “that analysis of their face would be used to infer their age and gender for purposes that include delivering tailored ads and content recommendations.”

The investigation looked into whether TikTok complies with Canadian privacy legislation and whether “valid and meaningful” consent is being obtained, with a focus on how TikTok’s privacy practices apply to children and youths.

The privacy authorities said TikTok has agreed to strengthen its communications on privacy measures and enhance the use of age-assurance methods to ensure underage users don’t access the platform. They noted the company also made some improvements to its practices during the investigation.

Dufresne said Tuesday that while the privacy authorities are satisfied with TikTok’s efforts to date, he and his colleagues will monitor the situation.

“There’s some steps that they still have to take … For the moment, we find it’s conditionally resolved,” he said.

In their report, the privacy authorities said that they “uncovered that TikTok removes approximately 500,000 underage users from the platform each year” — but the company collected those users’ information before dropping them.

“Recognizing the significant gaps that we observed in TikTok’s underage user detection mechanisms, we found it likely that many more children continued to use the platform, undetected, and therefore (were) subjected to profiling and targeting by TikTok,” the report said.

It also said it’s “particularly troubling” that TikTok used “sophisticated analytics tools for age estimation to serve its various other business purposes,” but did not appear to consider “using those tools or other similar tools to prevent underage users from accessing, and being tracked and profiled on, the platform.”

A TikTok spokesperson said the company welcomes “the conclusion of this investigation after working openly and constructively with the Privacy Commissioners, and are pleased they agreed to a number of our proposals to further strengthen our platform for Canadians.”

“While we disagree with some of the findings, we remain committed to maintaining strong transparency and privacy practices,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Privacy and safety concerns have swirled around TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance because of Chinese national security laws that compel domestic organizations to assist with intelligence gathering.

Last year, the federal government ordered the dissolution of TikTok’s Canadian business following a national security review of ByteDance.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 23, 2025.