Tik Tok fined in the UK for accepting children on the app

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data regulator, has fined TikTok £12.7m ($15.9m) for a range of breaches of its data protection laws, including misuse of children’s personal data.

The body estimates that, in 2020, TikTok allowed more than 1 million British children under the age of 13 to use its platform, in breach of its own rules.

The ICO said on Tuesday that TikTok failed to take necessary steps to verify who was using its platform, failed to take steps to remove minors and failed to provide adequate information to users about how their data was being collected and used. The fine applies to violations of the rules between May 2018 and July 2020.

“There are laws in place to ensure your children are as safe in the digital world as they are in the physical world. TikTok did not obey these laws,” said John Edwards, UK Information Commissioner. “TikTok should have known better. TikTok should have done better.”

A TikTok spokesperson told CNN that the company “invests heavily to help keep those under 13 off the platform” and that it disagrees with the ICO’s decision.

“Our 40,000-strong security team works around the clock to help keep the platform safe for our community,” the spokesperson said.

global pressure

The fine comes as a number of Western countries turn their backs on the Chinese-owned video streaming platform.

Australia will ban the use of TikTok on government devices “as soon as practicable”, the country’s attorney general announced on Tuesday, citing security concerns.

The United States, Great Britain and Canada have announced similar bans, while in New Zealand the app was due to be removed from all devices with access to the country’s parliament by the end of March.