How to change your age on TikTok
Unsplash: Solen FeyissaIt can be easy to accidentally write the wrong birth date when creating an account on TikTok. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy to fix if you need to change your age on the platform.
On January 13, 2021, TikTok strengthened its privacy settings by making every account under the age of 16 private by default, which came just months after the mass ban of multiple underaged accounts.
We’ve seen the impact of this on other platforms — for example, brand accounts for new startup companies being suspended due to being “underage” or users just accidentally inputting their birth date wrong.
So what’s the deal with TikTok, and how can you change your age on the app?
Can you change your age on TikTok?
There is no way to change your age on TikTok by yourself. To do this, you will have to contact the platform to prove your age.
In 2021, TikTok tightened its privacy settings by making all accounts under the age of 16 private and removing the ability to change your birth date within the app once your age had been set.
How to change your birthday on TikTok
However, if you’ve realized your birth date on the app is wrong, you’ll need to contact the app’s customer support team, or simply create a new TikTok account.
How to contact TikTok about changing your age
TikTok advised hitting the ‘Report a Problem’ button in-app or, if you don’t have access, emailing infocontact@tiktok.com with proof of age. This has to be a government-certified identification such as a passport, driving license, birth certificate, etc.
To report the problem within the app, simply follow these steps:
- Open the TikTok app
- Tap on Profile at the bottom right of the home screen and tap on the three lines in the top-right corner, which takes you to the Settings and Privacy page.
- Scroll down until you see the Support section and under that, tap Report a Problem.
- Select Account and Profile before tapping on Editing Profile.
- Select Other and then tap on the Need more help? option. This will bring you to a feedback form where you can enter a text request to change an inaccurate date of birth on your account.
Make a new TikTok account
If you have wrongly input your age and don’t want to go through the hassle of contacting TikTok’s customer service to get it changed, you can simply make a new TikTok account.
To do so, follow these steps to log out of your current one:
- Click the ‘Me’ tab
- Tap the 3 dots at the top right
- Scroll down and select Log Out
- Then you can follow the sign-up instructions to make a new account.
We have to reiterate that we do not advise doing this if you’re planning on cheating the system and lying about your age. These privacy settings were put in place for a reason, and even if you do lie about your age this will eventually be found out anyway.
If you have legitimate concerns that your age or date of birth is wrong in the app, and if it hinders your experience, then these tips will help.
If you want to learn more about how to use TikTok, you can check out our other guides including how to reset your FYP feed and how to turn off TikTok watch history.