TikTok to pay £12.7m UK fine after dropping appeal over child safety
TikTok has withdrawn its appeal against a £12.7m fine from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office. The regulator said the platform had failed to do enough to prevent under-13s from accessing the service and to remove them.
Image: theguardian.com · Author: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/danmilmo · source articleEditorial excerpt for news reporting
TikTok will pay a £12.7m UK fine after withdrawing its appeal against a data protection ruling. The case concerns the platform’s failure to adequately control users’ ages.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issued the penalty in 2023. It said up to 1.75 million under-13s may have used TikTok in the UK in 2020.
Conduct covered the period 2018–2020
The ICO said TikTok had not done enough to check users’ ages, remove underage users or obtain parental consent. It also said the company failed to give users sufficient information about how their data was collected and used.
TikTok said it disagreed with the ruling but had chosen to pay because the case concerned 2018–2020. The company said it had since introduced many youth-safety measures and policies.
ICO deputy commissioner Emily Keaney said the action showed the importance of effective safeguards to prevent children below the permitted age from accessing online services.
ICO to resume algorithm investigation
TikTok has also withdrawn an appeal against an ICO request for information on how its algorithm processes teenagers’ personal data and serves potentially harmful content. The regulator said it would now resume that investigation.
TikTok has more than 30 million users in the UK. As the country prepares to introduce a social-media access limit for under-16s next year, communications regulator Ofcom has said the technology industry needs to do more to enforce age restrictions.
What we know
- TikTok will pay a £12.7m UK fine after withdrawing its appeal.
- The ICO said up to 1.75 million under-13s used the platform in 2020.
- The findings covered age checks, removal of underage users and parental consent.
- The ICO will resume an investigation into TikTok’s algorithm and teenagers’ data.
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