Committee publication · Correspondence · 3 June 2026
Letter from Giles Derrington, Head of Public Affairs at TikTok relating to Children's TV and video content evidence session follow-up, 28 May 2026
From: Culture, Media and Sport Committee
Inquiry: Children's tv and video content
Summary
TikTok's Head of Public Affairs responds to follow-up questions from the Culture, Media and Sport Committee's May 2026 children's TV evidence session. The letter addresses six topics: the 'Red vs Blue' trend incident, Creator Rewards Programme criteria, parental controls uptake, under-13 removals, age assurance mechanisms, and news prominence discussions with Ofcom.
Key findings
- Red vs Blue incident: TikTok identified fewer than 10 violative posts before media coverage, but searches increased 3,500% following media reporting; by 12 March 2026, TikTok had removed nearly 2,000 posts and banned over 70 accounts.
- Creator Rewards Programme requires 10k followers, 100k views in 30 days, user age 18+, and 'high quality' original content; payouts use a formula incorporating watch duration, originality, and audience engagement.
- Under-13 removals accounted for just over 1% of UK active user base in 2023; TikTok claims to be the only major platform publishing quarterly underage removal data.
- Age assurance uses multi-layered approach including content behaviour analysis, age estimation technology, and facial recognition checks via Yoti; accounts suspected to be under-13 are removed with instruction to 'err on the side of caution'.
- 10pm winddown feature (default-on for under-18s) retained 98% user adoption when originally rolled out to under-16s; subsequently extended to all under-18 users.
Tone
ProceduralTopics
online-safetychildren-protectionbroadcastingdigital-platformscontent-moderation
Key actors
Giles Derrington, Dame Caroline Dinenage MP, Vicky Foxcroft, Damien Hinds, Fiona Campbell, TikTok, BBC, Ofcom
Notable line
“… even though the veracity of content posted online could not be determined, we still took 1 Remarks made to panel at Content London …”
Key Quotes
“… a window onto the future of television”
“… the BBC has described this as a 'phantom trend' i.e. something that appeared to have been a hoax with no intended real-world activity.”
“At its peak, searches for the content had increased by around 3500% compared to before the media coverage occurred.”
“TikTok also remains the only major platform to regularly and transparently publish how many under 13 users we remove on a quarterly basis.”
“When in doubt, we will remove an account we suspect may be under”
“During that time, 98% of users chose to keep the feature switched on.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗