After BBC News discovered hundreds of accounts streaming live from Syrian refugee camps, where youngsters were pleading for money, TikTok is raising its minimum age for live streaming from 16 to 18.
Some were earning up to $1,000 (£900) each hour, while TikTok took up to 70% of their withdrawals.
According to TikTok, in the future, only adults would be able to “use monetization tools or send virtual presents.”
Additionally, users will be able to host adult-only live streams “in the coming weeks.”
However, it’s unclear how TikTok will carry out these age limitations.
Both Google, which owns YouTube, and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, have age restrictions on uploaded content and a minimum live-streaming age of 13.
The regulations of TikTok state that you must “prevent the harm, endangerment, or exploitation” of minors on the platform and that you may not explicitly beg for gifts.
With over 3.9 billion downloads, TikTok is the fastest-growing social media app in the world. Since its debut in 2017, it has generated more than $6.2 billion in gross income from in-app purchases, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower.
