Governments worldwide are rewriting the rules for how social media platforms can interact with minors. The pace has accelerated sharply since Australia became the first country to enforce a blanket under-16 ban in December 2025. Several EU member states have followed with under-15 laws, and the EU itself is layering on the Digital Services Act, the forthcoming Digital Fairness Act, and a bloc-wide age verification app.
This page tracks the current state in every country we cover — sortable by status, age limit, or year. It is updated monthly. See our methodology for how status fields are sourced and verified.
TikTok is, for most children, the first social network they want and the last one parents feel confident about. That instinct is not misplaced. In 2026, the answer to “is TikTok safe for my child?” is: it depends on your child’s age, what you are willing to set up, and how much you are prepared to talk to them about what they see.
This guide walks you through what is actually on TikTok, what the platform does and does not do to protect minors, and what combination of tools genuinely keeps younger children off it.
Nearly half of all teenagers say they feel addicted to social media. That is not an accident. The platforms they use every day — Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube — were designed to be difficult to put down. In 2026, courts and regulators around the world are beginning to treat this as what it is: a deliberate business strategy built on the attention of children.
Here is what parents need to know about how these platforms work, what the evidence shows, and what is being done about it.