Douyin continues to control inappropriate content involving minors, disposing of 201,000 pieces of illegal content in the past month

Recently, Douyin issued an announcement to inform the progress of the management of inappropriate content involving minors.

The announcement shows that Douyin is committed to protecting the physical and mental health of minors, regularly promoting special management for the protection of minors, continuing to strengthen the identification, inspection and disposal of harmful content involving minors, focusing on the management of violations such as infringement of the legitimate rights and interests of minors, dissemination of harmful information, and induction of bad behavior. For suspected illegal and criminal acts, the platform secures evidence in accordance with the law and proactively reports it to the competent authorities.

Data shows that in the past month, the platform has disposed of a total of 201,000 pieces of illegal content and adopted gradient measures against 8,094 illegal accounts. Since 2026, the platform has assisted the competent authorities in arresting 80 suspects for illegal and criminal acts that infringed on the rights of minors.

The disposal cases announced by the platform show that the recent focus on illegal content involving minors mainly shows four types of characteristics.

One type is to commit indecency in the name of "making friends". Based on the reporting clues, the platform discovered that some users were paying attention to minors in the name of making friends, gradually getting closer through daily care and other methods, tricking minors into taking private photos and videos, and committing indecent acts at a distance. After verification, the platform will immediately ban illegal accounts and report relevant clues to the competent authorities. Ultimately, the suspect was criminally detained on suspicion of child molestation.

One category involves tampering with classic animations, transporting overseas “poisonous animations”, and spreading harmful content. Some accounts use AI technology to maliciously tamper with classic animations, or transfer overseas poisonous animations, and spread videos containing violent, bloody, and vulgar content, affecting the physical and mental health of minors. The platform has removed the relevant content and banned the account.

In addition, falsely using minor identity tags to publish vulgar content and gain traffic is also one of the focus of governance. Some accounts pretend to be minors, publish vulgar content wearing sexy clothes and deliberately highlighting sensitive parts, and use copywriting and pictures to create a vulgar look and feel, induce interaction, and gain traffic. The platform immediately removes illegal content from the shelves, and takes measures such as banning accounts, removing illegal fans, and suspending profit-making permissions.

There are also some accounts that promote behaviors such as smoking and drinking by minors and convey bad values. The platform has removed relevant content and banned the account.

The relevant person in charge of Douyin said that protecting the healthy growth of minors has a long way to go and requires extensive participation and collaborative efforts from families, schools, industries and other sectors of society. Douyin will continue to strengthen its technical means, improve its review capabilities, deepen all-round management of inappropriate content involving minors, and work with all sectors of society to build a strong defense line for minors’ online security.