TikTok to be fined for breaching children’s privacy in EU

TikTok is to be fined potentially millions of pounds for breaching children’s privacy after a ruling by EU data protection regulator, Report informs referring to The Guardian.

The European Data Protection Board said it had reached a binding decision on the Chinese-owned video-sharing platform over its processing of children’s data.

The regulator had “adopted a dispute resolution decision” after Tiktok submitted legal objections to an earlier ruling in Ireland, home of the company’s European headquarters. The fine is expected to be issued within the next four weeks.

The EU decision follows an investigation, opened in 2021, by the data protection commissioner in Ireland into TikTok’s level of compliance with the EU’s general data protection regulation and how it handles the data of children aged 13 to 17.

Earlier this year, TikTok was fined £12.7 million by the UK data watchdog for illegally processing the data of 1.4 million children aged under 13 who were using the service without parental consent.

The British information commissioner said the company had done “very little, if anything” to check who was using the platform and remove underage users, despite having received internal warnings that it was flouting its own terms and conditions.

A 2022 survey by the UK regulator Ofcom showed that more than 60% of eight- to 17-year-olds who use social media had a TikTok account in their own name.