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About underage bans on TikTok • About underage appeals on TikTok • Information for parents, guardians, and other trusted adults • Contact us about privacy-related issues
About underage bans on TikTok
TikTok may ban your account if we believe you're under 13 years old (or under 14 in Indonesia, Quebec, and South Korea). If you believe we made a mistake, you may submit an appeal.
What happens if your TikTok account is banned?
If your account is banned for being underage, you'll receive a push notification and an in-app notification the next time you open the app to inform you of this account change. You'll have 113 days (or 180 days if located in the European Economic Area (EEA), or 23 days if located in the U.S.) from the date your account is banned to submit an appeal and download your data.
If your appeal is approved, we'll unban your account and your data won't be deleted.
If you don't appeal or if your appeal isn't approved, we'll delete your account on day 120 (or day 187 if located in the EEA, or day 30 if located in the U.S.) and start deleting your data.
How to get a copy of your data if your account is banned for being underage
From the date your account is banned for being underage, you have 113 days (or 180 days if located in the European Economic Area (EEA), or 23 days in the U.S.) to use our Download your data tool to request your data (including your TikTok videos).
To request your TikTok data:
1. Tap Download your data from the account ban notification.
2. Select a file format, then tap Request data. After you submit your request, we'll create a file of your data that you can download from the Download your data tab. We'll notify you in the app when it's ready to download. Please note that it may take a few days to prepare the file.
To download your TikTok data:
1. Tap the in-app notification that contains your TikTok data details.
2. Tap Download data. When your file is ready, it'll be available to download for up to 4 days.
Note: You won't be able to use our Download your data tool after day 113 (or day 180 if located in the European Economic Area (EEA), or day 23 in the U.S.). Learn more in the Your Rights and Your Choices sections of our Privacy Policy.
About underage appeals on TikTok
If you believe your account was banned incorrectly, let us know by submitting an appeal.
To submit an appeal on TikTok:
1. Open the appeal notification.
2. Tap Appeal to begin the appeal process.
3. Follow the instructions provided. We'll notify you of the result.
Depending on your age and location, you'll need to confirm your age through one of the following options:
Selfie with ID:
To appeal using a selfie with ID, you must provide the following:
• A photo of your government-issued ID.
• A selfie of you holding (a) the same government-issued ID and (b) a piece of paper clearly and legibly stating a unique code that we'll send you during the appeal process.
You may cover any parts of your ID that you have a legal right or obligation to do so.
Photo with parent/guardian (if aged between 13 to 17):
To appeal using a photo with a parent or guardian, you must provide the following:
• A photo that includes you and your parent or guardian who is over 25 years old. If your parent or guardian isn't available, you can ask another trusted adult who is over 25 years old such as your grandparent, teacher, aunt, or uncle. Both of your faces must be clear and visible.
• Your parent, guardian, or other trusted adult must be looking at the camera and holding a piece of paper with the following items written clearly and legibly: (a) TikTok proof of age, (b) your date of birth and (c) a unique code that we'll send you during the appeal process.
Credit card authorization (if aged 18 and over):
To appeal through credit card authorization, you'll need to provide your credit card information. A small and temporary charge will be made to authenticate your credit card. You'll receive a refund for any charges incurred.
Note: You'll need to submit your email address for the above options so that when your appeal is complete, we can send an email to this address.
Facial age estimation (if aged 18 and over):
To appeal using facial age estimation, you'll need to provide your selfie. After you submit your selfie, we'll send it to our third-party age estimation service provider. They'll use their technology to estimate your age based on the facial features in your selfie. They will then send us your age estimate and delete your selfie.
To appeal using facial age estimation, you must provide the following:
• A selfie taken in real-time. You can't upload an existing selfie from your photo album.
• A selfie with your face fully in the frame provided on the screen. Remove any items that cause shadows such as hats. Eyeglasses can be kept on for the photo.
How we use the information you submit to TikTok if you appeal
If you submit an underage appeal, we'll ask you to provide some information to confirm your date of birth so we can decide whether to unban your account, as we have a legitimate interest in keeping the TikTok community safe and preventing misuse of our services as set out in our Privacy Policy. We'll need different information depending on how you've chosen to confirm your date of birth.
Keep in mind:
• If your appeal is approved, we'll update the date of birth for your account.
• If your appeal isn't approved, we may update your date of birth depending on the information you submit. Your date of birth isn't visible to others on TikTok.
• We'll only use the information you submit to confirm your age and to inform you of our decision. For example, if you choose to provide photos, we won't show them on your TikTok profile or anywhere else on TikTok.
How we retain your information if you appeal
As soon as the appeal process is complete, we'll start the process of deleting the information you submitted, including any selfies, photos of your ID, and your email address (provided by you so we can communicate the appeal outcome).
If your appeal isn't approved:
• We'll delete your account on day 120 (or day 187 if located in the EEA, or day 30 if located in the U.S. and start deleting your data.
• You'll have 113 days (or 180 days if located in the European Economic Area (EEA), or 23 days if located in the U.S.) from the date your account is banned, to download your data.
If your appeal is approved:
• As long as you have a TikTok account, we'll keep a record of your date of birth, the fact that you appealed, how you appealed, and the result.
• We won't keep a copy of your ID, if provided, but we'll keep information relating to the ID authentication check carried out by our service provider. For example, the number of times your ID was reviewed if your first appeal wasn't approved and when our service provider sent us the authentication result.
• If you decide to delete your TikTok account, all the above data (together with the rest of your data) is sent for deletion.
• We'll create a record that allows us to track the status and details of your appeal. We’ll retain this record for 90 days and then delete it.
How we share your information if you appeal
Depending on how you've chosen to confirm your date of birth, we'll share the information you submit with our service providers, who help us check if your ID is authentic, estimate your age from your selfie or make a temporary credit card authorization. We won't share this information with any third parties outside of the appeals process.
Information for parents, guardians, and other trusted adults
If we believe someone under 13, (or 14 in Indonesia, Quebec, and South Korea), is using TikTok, we'll ban their account and they may appeal. If you're the parent, guardian, or other trusted adult of a teen whose account we ban, they may ask you to help them submit an appeal.
Why it's important your teen provides their real date of birth
Your teen must be at least 13 years of age (or 14 in Indonesia, Quebec, and South Korea) to use TikTok. We're committed to providing an age-appropriate experience, so it's important that your teen provides their real date of birth. For example, we don't allow younger people on TikTok to use certain features. People on TikTok must be at least 16 years of age to do things like send or receive direct messages and allow others to download, Stitch, and Duet their videos. Learn more about teen privacy and safety settings.
How you can support your teen
We recommend that you review our Guardian's Guide to learn more about TikTok and the tools and controls we’ve created to help keep our community safe, as well as general information on common internet safety concerns. Reviewing these resources with your teen can help you create a dialogue about staying safe on TikTok.
How we use your information if you help your teen appeal
If your teen is eligible to appeal their ban, we'll give them some options for confirming their date of birth. In certain countries, one of the options is Photo with Parent/Guardian which requires them to upload a photo of themselves with their parent, guardian, or other trusted adult who confirms their date of birth.
If your teen asks you to appear in a photo to appeal a ban:
• We'll only use the photo to decide whether to approve or reject your teen's appeal. We rely on our legitimate interests, and those of your teen, as our legal basis to process the photo for this purpose. More specifically, we rely on the legitimate interest of keeping our community safe and preventing misuse of our services by unbanning your teen's account only if they provide confirmation of their date of birth. If you're living in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, learn more in the Our Legal Bases and How We Process Your Information sections of our Privacy Policy.
• We won't use it for any other purpose and we won't show the photo anywhere on TikTok.
• The photo will be stored by a third-party service provider. Learn more in the How We Share Your Information section of our Privacy Policy.
• As soon as the appeal process is complete, we'll start the process of deleting the photo. Learn more in the Data Security and Retention section of our Privacy Policy.
What are your rights over your personal data?
If you’re living in the European Economic Area, the UK, or Switzerland and your teen appeals their ban by submitting a photo of themselves with you, this photo will contain your personal data and TikTok Ireland and TikTok UK will be the joint controllers of that photo, as defined in our Privacy Policy.
To ensure the photo benefits from an adequate level of protection when it is transferred to our third-party service provider that will store it, we'll use European Commission approved standard contractual clauses under Article 46 of the GDPR. You can request a copy of these standard contractual clauses through our online form.
You have the right to:
• Object to our use of your photo and ask us to restrict our processing of it.
• Ask us to provide you with access to the photo.
• Ask us to delete or rectify the photo.To exercise these rights, you can contact us through our online form. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Irish Data Protection Commission if you live in the EEA, and with your local supervisory authority.
Contact us about privacy-related issues
To ask us about our Privacy Policy, you can contact us through our online form. If you’re living in the EEA, UK or Switzerland, you can contact our Data Protection Officer through our online form.