OTTAWA, Canada: TikTok has pledged to tighten safeguards for young users in Canada after a joint investigation found its measures to block children and protect their personal data were inadequate, privacy regulators said.

The probe, led by federal Privacy Commissioner Philippe Dufresne and authorities in Quebec, British Columbia, and Alberta, revealed that hundreds of thousands of Canadian children access TikTok every year despite the platform's rule barring users under 13. It also found that TikTok collected sensitive personal information from "a large number" of minors and used it for targeted content and advertising.

"TikTok collects vast amounts of personal information about its users, including children. This data is being used to target the content and ads that users see, which can have harmful impacts, particularly on youth," Dufresne said at a press conference.

In response, TikTok agreed to introduce stronger age-assurance tools to keep children off the app and to improve its communication with users, especially minors, about how their data is collected and used.

Regulators said the company also made changes during the probe, including barring advertisers from targeting under-18s except through broad categories such as language and approximate location, and expanding privacy information for Canadian users.

A TikTok spokesperson said the company was "pleased the commissioners agreed to a number of its proposals to further strengthen" protections in Canada. "While we disagree with some of the findings, we remain committed to maintaining strong transparency and privacy practices," the spokesperson added, without clarifying which parts of the report it disputed.

The Canadian investigation adds to the global scrutiny TikTok faces over data privacy and its links to China, where parent company ByteDance is based. Governments in Europe and the U.S. have taken steps to restrict the app: the European Union's two main policy-making institutions banned it from staff phones, while the U.S. Senate prohibited federal employees from using TikTok on government devices last December.

Ottawa has also been wary. In 2023, Canada launched a national security review of TikTok's expansion plans, which resulted in a government order requiring the company to end its Canadian operations. TikTok is contesting that order.