On Tuesday, Britain’s data watchdog said that it has fined Chinese-owned video-making app TikTok £12.7 ($15.9) million for breaching data protection law including by using the personal data of children aged under 13 without parental consent. U.K. privacy regulators fined TikTok for failing to protect children’s data, in a fresh blow to the Chinese-owned app as it faces heightened scrutiny from regulators.
The U.K.’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said in a statement that it was fining TikTok for a number of breaches of data protection law, including failing to use children’s personal data lawfully. ICO estimated that TikTok allowed as many as 1.4 million UK children under the age of 13 to use the app in 2020, despite its own rules requiring 13 as the minimum age to create an account.
The ICO said the data breaches occurred between May 2018 and July 2020, with TikTok not having done enough to inspect who was using the app and remove the account of underage children who were.
John Edwards, the U.K. Information Commissioner, said in a statement that TikTok should have known better and should have done better.
Our £12.7m fine reflects the serious impact their failures may have had. They did not do enough to check who was using their platform or take sufficient action to remove the underage children that were using their platform.
There are laws in place to make sure our children are as safe in the digital world as they are in the physical world. TikTok did not abide by those laws.”
John Edwards said.
Children’s data may have been used to track and profile them, potentially presenting them with harmful or inappropriate content, he added.
TikTok’s spokesperson said the company disagreed with the ICO’s decision but was pleased the fine had been reduced from the potential 27 million pounds set out by the ICO last year.
We invest heavily to help keep under 13s off the platform and our 40,000 strong safety team works around the clock to help keep the platform safe for our community.
We will continue to review the decision and are considering next steps.”
Firm’s spokesperson said.
The ICO’s fine follows actions by Western governments and institutions in recent weeks, including Britain, to bar the usage of TikTok on official devices over security concerns.
