A TikTok glitch is allowing some teens to access the TikTok Shop tab, despite the e-commerce offering being restricted to users who are 18 and older, according to TikTok’s policy. The problem arises when a teen falsely claims to be 18 or older when signing up for TikTok, but later has to pair their account with their parent’s using TikTok’s parental controls. Even after the pairing process, the teen can still access the adults-only feature.
TikTok’s parental controls, known as Family Pairing, allow an adult to manage a teen account’s screen time, content choices, and account privacy. To use Family Pairing, the teen selects “Teen” in the app’s settings and scans the parent’s QR code. However, the Shop tab remains accessible to the minor, despite being under parental control.
The Shop tab on TikTok may display adult items like sex toys, lingerie, hemp products, vape pens, etc., which should ideally not be accessible to underage users. Business Insider reported on TikTok’s struggle to keep banned goods out of the marketplace.
Testing the loophole, TechCrunch found that enabling parental controls does not restrict access to the Shop tab. The tests highlight loopholes in how TikTok applies parental controls when a teen initially lies about their age when signing up for TikTok.
TikTok should strengthen its controls to ensure parental supervision correctly restricts underage users from accessing adult content. The company needs to prompt parents to confirm their child’s age during the setup process for Family Pairing.
In case TikTok intends to boost TikTok Shop’s appeal to younger users, it needs to address these loopholes promptly to ensure a safe user experience for all.
