As a social media marketing consultant, I‘ve seen many clients encounter issues from entering the wrong birthday when signing up for TikTok.
Why is your age such a big deal on TikTok? Well according to statistics from the Pew Research Center, over 60% of TikTok users are under 30 years old. With such a young user base, TikTok must abide by regulations like COPPA (Children‘s Online Privacy Protection Act) that limit collection of data on children under 13.
Therefore, TikTok instituted age policies like:
- Requiring users be at least 13 years old to create an account
- Setting an age floor of 16 to go live or host streams
However, when you‘re in a rush signing up for the hottest new app, it‘s easy to accidentally set your birthday to an incorrect underage date!
Consequences of Incorrect Birthday on TikTok
Inputting the wrong age during initial registration can negatively impact both TikTok and its users.
For users, it means losing access to key features like:
- Live streaming
- Certain content filters
- Targeted video recommendations
- Commenting abilities
- Branded content creation opportunities
As a user your experience is clearly degraded. But entering an inaccurate birthday, especially one that implies you are under 13, also puts TikTok at risk of:
- Violating COPPA by collecting data on children
- Spreading inappropriate content to underage viewers
- Enabling cyberbullying or other toxic behavior
The stakes around age verification are high!
Is it Possible to Change Your Birthday After Signing Up?
With so much reliance on user age, can you update your birthday if you entered it incorrectly when registering your TikTok account?
The short answer is no. Unlike other social platforms like Instagram or Facebook, TikTok does NOT have an editing feature for date of birth.
The only potential option is to directly contact TikTok support and provide legal documentation to prove your age. And still approval is rare, as their policy is treating whatever age you enter initially as permanent.
But don‘t lose hope! Further down I explain step-by-step how to update your age by creating an entirely new account.
First though, let‘s dive deeper into why TikTok makes changing your birthday so difficult…
Why TikTok Restricts Changing Birthday After Registration
TikTok firmly restricts the ability to alter your birthday after first signing up for two main reasons:
1. Adherence to child safety regulations
As a platform with a massive under-18 user base, TikTok closely adheres to COPPA and other child safety regulations when managing personal data. These regulations legally require parental consent for collecting data on children under 13.
By treating the birthday users enter at registration as permanent, TikTok ensures they are complying with data collection rules around underage users. It also guarantees age-appropriate content filters can be accurately applied.
2. Maintaining trust and safety for all users
In TikTok‘s own words, their strict age policies exist to "foster an environment for genuine interactions" and safety for all users.
If users could freely change their birthday after the fact, it would undermine this trust and safety. For example, an 18 year old could falsely change their age to 16 then participate in inappropriate live streams with minors.
Restricting birthday changes closes loopholes that could endanger younger users. It also builds credibility in TikTok‘s overall safety-first mission.
Step-By-Step Instructions to Change Birthday on TikTok
Given the restrictions around editing your existing account‘s age, what options do you have if you entered the wrong birthday when you registered?
Here is the step-by-step process I guide my clients through to update their age by creating an entirely new account:
Delete Your Current TikTok Account
First, if you have an existing TikTok account with the incorrect birthday, you will need to delete it:
- Open TikTok app and go to your profile
- Tap the 3-dot menu icon in the upper right
- Select “Manage account” then “Delete account”
- Input password to permanently delete
Once removed, you are ready to set up a new profile with accurate age!
Sign Up for New Account
Next, download TikTok again from your device‘s app store. When prompted, register a new account being VERY careful to:
- Enter your 100% real, legal name
- Input your EXACT date of birth
Double, even triple check you have the correct birthday before accepting!
Re-Build Your Presence
I know it‘s frustrating losing your previous videos and follower count. But the payoff for entering proper age details far outweighs having to rebuild. Luckily, with your knowledge of growth tactics, you can re-establish quickly!
Focus on:
- High engagement challenges & trends
- Cross-promoting other owned channels
- Strategic hashtag targeting
- Collaborating with influencers
- Leveraging paid traffic sources
In no time, you will regain an audience and unlock key monetization features!
Final Thoughts
Dealing with an inaccurate birthday limiting your TikTok presence is annoying. But given the app‘s firm, legally-mandated age policies, editing after sign up is nearly impossible. Resetting via a brand new account truly is the most surefire method to resolve the issue.
Have you faced your own TikTok birthday struggles? Share your story below!
