TikTok removes more than seven million suspected under-age accounts

TikTok removed nearly 7.3 million accounts suspected to belong to under-age children in the first quarter of this year.

The video-sharing platform said the profiles accounted for fewer than 1% of global users.

Children aged 13 and over are allowed to use the platform, which is highly popular with teenagers.

This is the first time TikTok has published such figures in a Community Guidelines Enforcement Report.

It said it hoped the detail about under-age users will "help the industry push forward when it comes to transparency and accountability around user safety".

TikTok emphasised that it has introduced several measures to protect teenagers on the platform, including limiting features like private messaging and live-streaming to users aged 16 and over.

Those under the age of 16 will also have their accounts automatically set to private - a feature introduced in January this year.