The EU wants TikTok to close children’s accounts
TikTok and children
The EU says TikTok must adjust the settings for children, i.e. people under 18 years old, so that the content posted is only visible to TikTok users they have chosen themselves. It should also not be recommended to others on the For You page. So it will only be possible to share with a known circle. This concerns accounts that are currently set to ‘public’. Accounts that are set to private can be discovered too easily by others via the list that shows who is following someone. That is also not something the EU welcomes, because it can also trigger malicious parties. Their profile photos can also be viewed by everyone. The EU is now only giving it as a kind of preliminary advice, but it could cost TikTok dearly if it plays dumb and doesn’t act on it. It can then be concluded that it is not adhering to the DSA, which in turn will result in fines.
Safe experience
The EU says: “Minors deserve a safe experience from the moment they go online. The Digital Services Act requires platforms to build protections for minors into the design of their services, and holds them accountable when they don’t. A high level of protection should not be an opt-in; it should be the default. This is our responsibility for current and future generations of European children.”TikTok is currently receiving commentary from several quarters, including an initiative from the United Kingdom to improve safety want to improve children’s behavior on TikTok. Moreover, the EU has not yet finished investigating. It says it also wants to delve deeper into the rabbit hole effect and that’s interesting because there are more and more lawsuits over the extent to which social media platforms are highly addictive.