TikTok was fined £12.7 million (about $15.9 million) by Britain's data watchdog for various violations of data protection legislation. These include collecting and processing the personal information of children under the age of 13 without parental knowledge or permission.
According to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the Chinese-owned video app did not do enough to verify user age and remove minors from the service.
UK's Legal Probe
The ICO anticipated that by 2020, up to 1.4 million UK minors will be accessing the site despite the company's regulations prohibiting use by anyone younger than 13. Although the use of the internet by minors is not explicitly prohibited by UK privacy laws, businesses that collect or store information about children must have parental or guardian permission to do so.
In a report by The Guardian, Information Commissioner John Edwards issued a statement emphasizing that safeguards exist to ensure that children are just as protected online as they are offline. TikTok, however, reportedly did not follow the regulations.
"An estimated 1 million under-13s were inappropriately granted access to the platform, with TikTok collecting and using their data. That means their data may have been used to track and profile them, potentially delivering harmful, inappropriate content at their next scroll."
TikTok should have known better, Edwards said. He explained that the huge penalty reflects the potential severity of the company's mistakes. The commissioner believes TikTok did not undertake adequate monitoring of its user base or removal of content from the site that was inappropriate for minors.
Based on the ICO's probe, TikTok received internal complaints but did not provide an "adequate" response.
Is TikTok at Fault?
In a statement released by the company, TikTok stressed how they put in many resources to ensure kids under 13 do not use the service. It is said that their 40,000-person safety team is on the job 24/7 to ensure everyone can use the platform safely.
"While we disagree with the ICO's decision, which relates to May 2018 to July 2020, we are pleased that the fine announced today has been reduced to under half the amount proposed last year. We will continue to review the decision and are considering the next steps."
TikTok insisted that it has altered its procedures since the ICO looked into the matter. Currently, the site is more in line with its social media contemporaries by educating its moderators to detect underage accounts and giving methods for parents to seek to delete their children's accounts, in addition to relying on the user's self-declared age.
The allegations were made before the ICO implemented its "age-appropriate design code," which lays out even tougher guidelines for how platforms must manage the personal information of minors. The guideline also clarifies that a lack of knowledge about the users' ages cannot be used as an excuse for not taking adequate precautions with their personal information.
