How to Change Age on TikTok When the Birthday Is Wrong
There is no birthday field to edit. The date you typed at signup decides LIVE, gifts and messages, and the only way to change it is to prove the right one.
How to change age on TikTok: you can't edit your birthday in the app's settings. TikTok corrects it only when you prove your real date of birth, normally through an age appeal started from the notification TikTok sends when it restricts a feature. Proof is an ID with a selfie, a card authorization, or facial age estimation where offered.
That sounds bureaucratic for a typo, and it is meant to. The birthday on a TikTok account is not a profile detail like a bio; it is the switch that decides which features the account gets. If anyone could change it in a menu, every age rule on the platform would be one tap away from meaningless, so TikTok makes the correction depend on evidence instead.
Every age-gated feature on TikTok reads the date of birth stored on the account, not the age of the person holding the phone. As of October 2026, hosting a LIVE and sending or receiving gifts require the account holder to be 18 or older, a minimum TikTok raised from 16 on November 23, 2022, and direct messages are limited to accounts aged 16 and over. Accounts registered as younger than 16 are also private by default. A birthday typed carelessly at signup, or a birthday entered by a parent years ago, can therefore lock an adult out of LIVE indefinitely.
TikTok's support page on minimum age appeals describes how the correction works. When TikTok removes your access to an age-restricted feature because it believes you don't meet the minimum age, you get a notification, and you have 180 days from that date to submit an appeal. If the appeal is approved, TikTok updates the date of birth on the account. If it is not approved, TikTok may still update the date depending on what you submitted. Your date of birth is not shown to other people either way.
The age gate is separate from the follower gate for LIVE. An adult who fixes the birthday still needs the follower count TikTok publishes for hosting, and that count is the public number TikTok followers add to. They do not verify age, and age does not move until the appeal is approved.
Can you change your birthday on TikTok?
Not by editing it. TikTok's settings have no date of birth field you can change, and that is deliberate: the date set at signup is used to decide which features the account can use, so changing it requires proof rather than a menu.
What you can do depends on your situation:
- If TikTok has restricted a feature because of your age, open the notification about it and tap Appeal. This is the route TikTok describes for correcting the date, and it is the fastest one.
- If the birthday is wrong but nothing has been restricted yet, contact support from Settings and privacy, under Report a problem, and explain the error. Support may ask for the same kind of proof the appeal uses.
- If the account was created with a birthday under 13, it is usually removed as underage rather than restricted, and the appeal for that is the same age verification.
Making a new account instead
Opening a second account with a different birthday is the shortcut people try, and it causes more trouble than it solves. The new account starts at zero followers, so it is further from LIVE than the old one, and running accounts to get around a restriction can count as evading enforcement. Fixing the date on the account you already have is the better path.
How do you verify your age on TikTok?
TikTok's appeal page lists three ways to prove your date of birth, and which ones you see depends on your country:
- An official ID document together with a selfie taken in real time, so TikTok can match the face to the document.
- A temporary credit card authorization. The card is checked, not charged for a purchase, and it shows the account holder is an adult.
- Facial age estimation, offered in some regions, where a short selfie video is used to estimate whether you are over the minimum age.
Where the information goes
TikTok says it shares what you submit with service providers that check whether an ID is authentic or run the card authorization, and that it keeps a record of your date of birth, the fact that you appealed, how you appealed and the result for as long as you have an account. If that trade bothers you, it is better to know before you upload a document.
What happens if you're under 18 on TikTok?
The account works, with a set of features switched off or set to safer defaults. As of October 2026, an account registered as under 18 cannot host a LIVE or send and receive gifts. An account under 16 cannot use direct messages and starts private. TikTok also applies stricter default settings to younger teens, such as tighter limits on who can interact with their videos.
These are not penalties, and they lift on their own as the stored birthday passes each age. An account opened at 15 with the correct date gains messages at 16 and LIVE eligibility at 18 without anyone doing anything.
The problem is only when the stored date is wrong. An adult whose account says 16 will wait two years for a birthday that already happened, unless they appeal.
How do you turn off age restriction on TikTok?
People mean two different things by this, and the fixes are unrelated.
If you mean features locked by your age, there is no switch. The restriction comes from the stored date of birth, and the only way to lift it early is to prove a different date through the appeal described above.
If you mean content being filtered out of your feed, that is usually Restricted Mode, a separate setting that limits content that may not be suitable for everyone. To turn it off:
1. Go to your profile and tap the menu at the top.
2. Open Settings and privacy, then Content preferences.
3. Tap Restricted Mode, enter the passcode and switch it off.
Restricted Mode needs a passcode in both directions, which is what lets a parent set it up. If you have forgotten the passcode, the app offers a reset, and support can help if that fails.
Why can't I go live because of my age?
Because LIVE is checked against the birthday on the account, and hosting requires 18 or older. If the account says you are younger, the LIVE option will not appear in the create menu however many followers you have, and nothing on the device changes that.
Age is one of two gates. The other is the follower threshold TikTok publishes for hosting, which how many followers on TikTok to go live covers along with the official exception process. Passing one gate does nothing for the other, so an account can be past the follower count and still locked by its birthday.
If LIVE was available and then disappeared, age is less likely than a guidelines strike. Why can't I go live on TikTok lists the causes in the order they usually apply, and how TikTok appeals work explains how to contest a restriction that was not about age.
What ID does TikTok accept?
TikTok's page asks for an official ID document and does not publish a single list for every country, because accepted documents vary by region. In practice, the documents people use are government-issued photo IDs: a passport, a national ID card or a driving licence. Whatever you use has to show your date of birth and a photo clear enough to match the selfie.
A few practical points make approval more likely. Use a document that is current, not expired. Photograph it flat, in good light, with all four corners visible and no glare across the date. Take the selfie in the same session, facing the camera, without a hat or sunglasses.
Once the date is corrected, the features it unlocks appear on their own schedule rather than instantly, so give it time before assuming the appeal failed. The rest of the LIVE checklist, including the follower count that buying TikTok followers adds to publicly but that does not replace TikTok's own rules, is unchanged by the appeal. Every TikTok service is listed on the TikTok page.
Questions people ask about age on TikTok
Can I change my birthday on TikTok?
Not in settings. TikTok corrects a date of birth only with proof, usually through an age appeal started from the notification about a restricted feature, or through support under Report a problem.
How long do I have to appeal an age restriction on TikTok?
TikTok's support page gives you 180 days from the date your access to the age-restricted feature was removed to submit an appeal.
How does TikTok verify age?
With an official ID and a real-time selfie, a temporary credit card authorization, or facial age estimation in some regions. Approved appeals update the date of birth on the account.
How old do you have to be to go live on TikTok?
As of October 2026, 18 or older, a rule in place since November 23, 2022. Sending and receiving gifts also requires 18, and direct messages require 16.
How do I turn off Restricted Mode on TikTok?
Open Settings and privacy, then Content preferences, then Restricted Mode, enter the passcode and turn it off. Restricted Mode filters content and is separate from age restrictions on features.
Can other people see my birthday on TikTok?
No. TikTok says your date of birth is not visible to others on the platform. It is used only to decide which features the account can use.
Keep reading
- TikTok followers — Age is one gate and the follower count is the other; TikTok followers add to the public number, not to the age check.
- How many followers on TikTok to go live — The follower gate for LIVE, and the official exception.
- Why can't I go live on TikTok? — Every requirement, in the order it usually blocks people.
- TikTok appeal — How strikes, bans and appeals work when the problem isn't age.