TikTok receives a British fine of 14.5 million euros for violating children’s privacy

TikTok has been fined more than 14.5 million euros by the British ICO. According to that regulator, the platform violated various privacy laws. TikTok used, among other things, personal data of children under the age of 13, without the consent of their parents.

The Information Commissioner’s Office states that TikTok allowed up to 1.4 million British children under the age of 13 to use its platform, despite its own rules banning children of that age from creating accounts. British rules state that platforms must ask permission from parents to use personal data of such minors. The ICO says TikTok failed to do so, even though it ‘should have known’ that minors were using its platform. “TikTok has failed to implement adequate controls to identify and remove minors from its platform,” the regulator said.

The regulator’s investigation shows that some senior staff had raised concerns internally that children under the age of 13 were using the platform and were not removed. The ICO believes that TikTok has not responded adequately to this. TikTok may have used the data to track and profile minors, according to John Edwards, the British Information Commissioner. According to the ICO, the breaches took place between May 2018 and July 2020.

The ICO announced last year that it was investigating TikTok for potentially violating children’s privacy. The regulator then spoke of a fine of 27 million pounds, which equates to 30.9 million euros. A spokesperson for TikTok says to Reuters disagree with the ICO’s decision, but are pleased that the amount of the fine has been reduced to 14.5 million euros. The company says it is considering its next steps.