TikTok has come under fire from the UK’s data watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) due to not properly protecting UK children under the age of 13. TikTok allowed up to 1.4 million UK children under 13 years old to access the app since 2020 and therefore was fined by the ICO for £12.7 million.
ICO watchdog 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. TikTok did not abide by those laws.
“As a consequence, an estimated one million under-13s were inappropriately granted access to the platform, with TikTok collecting and using their personal data.
“TikTok should have known better. TikTok should have done better. Our £12.7m fine reflects the serious impact their failures may have had.”
“When you sign up you can be targeted for advertising, you can be profiled, your data contributes to an algorithm which feeds content,” he said. “If you’ve been looking at content which is not appropriate for your age, that can get more and more extreme.
“It can be quite harmful for people who are not old enough to fully appreciate the implications and to make appropriate choices.”
This comes after heavy pressure from the US government who are looking to get the popular social media platform banned and legislation from the EU banning it from government devices.
