Britain's media and communications regulator announced today (Thursday) that it has opened an investigation into TikTok to determine whether it has breached its obligations to protect children from harmful content.

TikTok faces increasing penalties worldwide.

The regulator said on its website that this investigation will seek to establish whether there are reasonable grounds to believe that TikTok has or is violating its legal duties, including using a highly effective age verification system to accurately determine whether a user is a child.

It added that opening an investigation does not mean the regulator has concluded the company has breached its obligations, warning of possible fines of up to 10% of the company's global revenue.

In response, TikTok said it is fully committed to providing experiences tailored to each age group, adding that it is confident it complies with its duties under UK law and will cooperate with the regulator to demonstrate this.

TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, faces growing penalties and restrictions worldwide. Two years ago, the British regulator fined TikTok nearly two million pounds sterling for failing to provide timely information about a safety feature related to parental controls.

In the preceding year, the British data protection authority imposed a larger fine of 12.7 million pounds sterling on the platform for the unlawful use of children's personal data.