The United Kingdom Data Regulator on Tuesday disclosed that it has fined TikTok the sum of £12.7 million ($15.9 million) for allowing up to 1.4 million children under the age of 13 years to use its social media platform in violation of its own rules.
The UK government through the Information Commissioner’s Office said the Chinese-owned firm broke Britain law by failing to obtain the consent of parents or guardians to use the children’s data after they had set up accounts despite being too young.
According to it, TikTok disputed the ICO’s finding, which adds to its woes after a wave of bans by Western governments of the platform’s use on official devices, owing to fears that the data could be accessed by Beijing.
“We will continue to review the decision and are considering the next steps,” the company said in a statement.
“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,” it said.
TikTok nevertheless welcomed a decision by the ICO to slash the fine from £27 million, which the regulator had previously warned it might impose.
The popular video-sharing platform’s terms of service do not permit children under 13 to set up accounts.
“That means that their data may have been used to track them and profile them, potentially delivering harmful, inappropriate content at their very next scroll”, Information Commissioner John Edwards said.
“There are laws in place to make sure our children are as safe in the digital world as they are in the physical world,” he said in a statement. TikTok did not abide by those laws”.
