How TikTok verifies the age of 18M+ users a year with Incode
TikTok, a global social media platform with over 1 billion monthly active users, uses Incode to verify the age of its users. When someone appeals an age decision, Incode's automated identity verification confirms their age from a verified identity, with no reviewer in the loop. TikTok verifies more than 18 million users a year this way, meeting each market's age-assurance rules without turning real users away.
monthly active users worldwide, the scale every appeal runs at
users age-verified a year
automated flow for every age appeal
humans in the loop
A platform where everyone feels safe
Creating a welcoming environment where everyone feels safe is TikTok's highest priority.
TikTok empowers its community with a range of tools to control and manage their presence on the platform, and upholds its privacy principles as it builds responsibly, equitably, and openly to earn its community's trust. Wherever the platform operates, a user who has to prove their age enters an appeal flow that must be fast, accurate, and private.
TikTok's priority is a welcoming environment where everyone feels safe, and that depends on an age appeal flow that is fast, accurate, and private. Automated identity verification decides those appeals without exposing more personal data than the decision needs.
Age assurance at the scale of a global platform
Age-assurance laws are rising fast and unevenly, and TikTok has to satisfy the strictest of them, everywhere it operates, as new laws keep landing.
Three forces made manual review untenable:
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01
Every market writes its own rules
The UK Online Safety Act, EU rules, and a growing set of U.S. state regimes each set their own bar for proving a user's age.
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02
Volume is the hard part
Verification runs across hundreds of millions of users, so the process has to be light enough that real people finish it and strong enough that a regulator accepts it. Getting one right at the cost of the other is not an option.
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03
A person in every loop
The approach TikTok replaced waited on a manual reviewer for every case, so checks often ran past 24 hours, legitimate users dropped out before finishing, and reviewers saw more personal data than the decision needed.
Manual verification does not hold at this scale.
Age verification, fully automated
When a user appeals an age decision, Incode verifies their identity in one automated flow, shaped to TikTok's scale and markets.
Fully automated
Age Verification
A user verifies in the app, Incode's AI models confirm their age from a verified identity, and TikTok acts on the result, with no reviewer in the loop.
The person on the ID
Identity Verification
The appeal captures a document and a selfie, checks the selfie for liveness, and matches it to the ID, so the person clearing the appeal is the person the ID belongs to.
Configurable per market
Configurable modules let TikTok adjust the flow for each market's rules, from one integration.
Private by design
The appeal is decided automatically, so no review team ever sees a user's ID or selfie, and the process exposes less personal data than manual review did.
Verification runs live across TikTok's markets.
How it works
Automated and trusted at global scale
Any hour, any volume
The decision comes back on its own, at any hour and any volume, so appeals never wait on a review queue.
Minimal data, by default
The ID is redacted and the selfie dropped, keeping only what a decision needs.
Certified, benchmarked accuracy
Incode's passive liveness detection is iBeta certified (Levels 1–3), and its face recognition accuracy is evaluated in the NIST FRTE 1:N benchmark.
Privacy is the architecture
Incode made privacy a founding conviction long before regulation or the market asked for it. Its AI-first identity verification reduces fraud while remaining private and compliant.
Testimonial
“With Incode, we've been able to scale global age compliance without creating friction for our users or compromising security.”
Compliance Manager · TikTok
Frequently asked questions
Questions specific to the TikTok story
Still have questions? Talk to an expertHow does TikTok verify a user's age with Incode?
When someone appeals an age decision, they complete a single automated flow inside the app. Incode's AI models establish their age from a verified identity, and TikTok acts on the outcome without a human reviewer involved.
Why did TikTok move away from manual review for age appeals?
The previous approach relied on a human reviewer for every case. Checks regularly stretched past 24 hours, legitimate users abandoned the process before finishing, and reviewers were shown more personal data than the decision required. At the scale of hundreds of millions of users, that model does not hold.
How many users does TikTok age-verify each year?
More than 18 million users a year complete age verification, on a platform with over 1 billion monthly active users worldwide.
How does the appeal confirm the person is the one on the ID?
The flow captures an identity document and a selfie, confirms the selfie comes from a live person, and matches the face to the document. That way, the account behind the appeal belongs to the ID's rightful holder.
How does TikTok meet different age-assurance laws in each market?
Configurable modules adapt the flow to each market's rules from a single integration, covering requirements like the UK Online Safety Act, EU rules, and the growing set of U.S. state regimes.
What happens to a user's ID and selfie after verification?
The appeal is decided by software, so no reviewer views the user's ID or selfie. The document is redacted, the selfie is dropped, and nothing beyond what the decision requires is retained.
Is the accuracy of the verification independently tested?
Yes. Incode's passive liveness detection holds iBeta certification at Levels 1 through 3, and its face recognition accuracy is measured in the NIST FRTE 1:N benchmark.
What's next
See how Incode verifies age and identity at scale
Meet every market's age-assurance bar without losing the legitimate users behind the appeals.