Chinese social network TikTok was fined 12.7 million pounds (14.5 million euros) on Tuesday by the British digital regulator, the ICO, for “illegal” use of personal data of children , according to a press release.
In particular, the ICO estimates that TikTok, subject to recent restrictions in several countries, allowed up to 1.4 million children under the age of 13 in the United Kingdom to open an account on its platform in 2020, unlike to its official rules, and also points to a use of their data without the consent of their parents. The ICO investigation found that TikTok failed to conduct “adequate checks to identify and cancel accounts of children” under the age to use its platform, even as some executives did. raise internal concerns about this, details the press release.
“Making sure our children are safe in the digital world”
“There are laws in place in the UK to make sure our children are safe in the digital world” and “TikTok has not respected them”, commented John Edwards, British information commissioner, quoted in the press release.
The White House, European Commission, Canadian, British, Australian governments recently banned their officials from using TikTok on their work phones. The Norwegian Parliament did the same last week as well as the Swedish army. The United States notably accuses TikTok, a subsidiary of the Chinese ByteDance, of serving as a tool for Beijing to spy on and manipulate Americans.