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TikTok fined £12.7mln in UK for misuse of children’s personal data

Published: 09:14 04 Apr 2023 EDT

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Video-sharing app TikTok has been fined £12.7mln by UK privacy watchdog Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for illegally using the personal data belonging to more than one million underage children. 

The ICO found that ByteDance-owned TikTok violated UK data laws by allowing 1.4 million children aged under 13 to sign up in 2020 alone, despite claiming to ban them from the service.

UK data laws require apps such as TikTok to seek parental consent when children under 13 sign up.

Information Commissioner John Edwards suggested that this data may have been used to track and profile children, potentially delivering harmful, inappropriate content.

“TikTok should have known better. TikTok should have done better. Our £12.7mln fine reflects the serious impact their failures may have had,” said Edwards, adding: “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.”

The spokesman for TikTok said: "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."

The UK, US and EU have banned the app from government-issued devices, and Australia issued a ban on Tuesday.

TikTok faces a potential full ban in the US if its Chinese investors do not sell their stake.

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