LONDON (Commonwealth Union)_The well-known video-sharing software TikTok might be hit with a fine of £27 million, or roughly $29 million, for failing to safeguard children’s privacy in the UK.
British regulators on Monday sent a warning notice to TikTok, alleging that the company had handled children’s information without the proper consent from their parents, processed sensitive information without a valid legal basis, and failed to make the platform’s data practices understandable to children in the first significant case under new British rules protecting minors online.
The Information Commissioner’s Office in Britain, which is in charge of data protection, sent a legal document to TikTok that, while the conclusions are preliminary, formally notifies authorities of their intention to impose a fine.
The video-sharing software has been accused of failing to safeguard the privacy of younger users before. The owners of the platform that is now known as TikTok, Musical.ly, agreed to pay a fine of $5.7 million in 2019 to resolve allegations that they had broken the US federal legislation protecting the privacy of children online.
The British declaration comes as the American government works to allay fears about TikTok, which is controlled by Chinese internet behemoth ByteDance, regarding national security.
In a statement, TikTok expressed its disagreement with the Information Commissioner’s Office’s conclusions while pointing out that they were only preliminary. “We disagree with the preliminary opinions given and expect to formally react to the ICO in due course. While we recognize the ICO’s role in protecting privacy in the UK,” the statement read.
One year after Britain implemented extensive new internet protections for children known as the Children’s Code, TikTok has received a privacy complaint.
According to such regulations, internet businesses like social networks and game servers must create their features and goods with kids in mind. The regulations also prevent online providers from tracking children’s exact locations and mandate that they enable the greatest privacy settings for young users. Before the Children’s Code went into effect in Britain last year, well-known social media platforms including YouTube, Snap, TikTok, and Instagram made announcements about enhancing child protections.
British officials stated that the TikTok probe was a small component of a much larger initiative in the UK to make sure businesses are adhering to the new regulations.
In a statement, John Edwards, the UK information commissioner, said: “We are currently looking into how over 50 different online services are conforming with the Children’s Code and have six ongoing investigations looking into companies providing digital services who haven’t, in our initial view, taken their responsibilities around child safety seriously enough.”
California recently passed a broad new law governing children’s internet safety that was modelled after the British initiative. The new law, known as the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, will go into force in 2024.
