Ottawa — TikTok has agreed to tighten its safety measures after a Canadian investigation revealed the app failed to keep children off its platform and did not do enough to protect their personal information.
The probe, led by Canada’s Privacy Commissioner Philippe Dufresne and provincial watchdogs from Quebec, British Columbia, and Alberta, uncovered troubling findings: hundreds of thousands of Canadian children were using TikTok every year, despite the company’s rule that the app is only for users 13 and older.
Worse, investigators found that TikTok was collecting and using the personal data of these children.
“Harmful Impacts on Youth”
“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 warned at a press conference.
TikTok Promises Action
In response, TikTok has agreed to make changes:
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Stronger age-assurance methods to block underage users.
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Clearer communication to help young users understand how their data could be used.
The company has not yet issued a formal comment.
A Growing Global Backlash
Canada’s move adds to a wave of global scrutiny on TikTok. Governments and regulators across the world have raised concerns that the app’s ties to Chinese parent company ByteDance Ltd. could allow Beijing to harvest user data or push its own interests.
Already, the European Union’s two biggest institutions have banned TikTok from staff phones. In the U.S., the Senate has passed a bill barring federal employees from using the app on government-owned devices.
✨ For many Canadian parents, this investigation hits close to home. It’s not just about privacy policies—it’s about protecting kids from harm in a digital world that never stops watching.
