Social media platform TikTok is raising its minimum age for livestreaming to 18 from 16 previously.
The move effectively bans children from being able to livestream on the TikTok site and comes after media reports of young children in Syrian refugee camps begging for financial donations.
TikTok said the news rules are aimed at preventing the exploitation of children on its platform. However, TikTok did not specify how it plans to enforce the age 18 restriction.
Other social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube have a minimum livestreaming age of 13.
TikTok is the world’s fastest-growing social media app and has been downloaded more than 3.9 billion times worldwide.
Industry data estimates that TikTok has made about $6 billion U.S. in gross revenue from in-app spending since it first launched in 2017.
TikTok is owned by Chinese internet technology company ByteDance, which is headquartered in Beijing. Some American politicians have called for the TikTok app to be banned in the U.S. over concerns it could be used for spying or other nefarious purposes.
