United Kingdom, July 16 -- TikTok is facing an investigation by UK media regulator Ofcom over concerns that its age verification systems may not be doing enough to prevent children from accessing the platform and harmful content.

The probe comes just a month after the UK government announced plans to ban under-16s from a range of social media platforms, as scrutiny of online child safety continues to intensify.

Ofcom said it will examine how TikTok determines whether a user is a child and whether its systems meet the requirements of the UK's Online Safety Act. In particular, the regulator is questioning the effectiveness of the platform's use of "age inference" technology, which estimates a user's age based on their behaviour, including...