EU says TikTok failed to adequately protect children’s privacy

The European Commission said on July 24 that TikTok had failed to adequately protect children’s privacy by allowing adults to view the accounts of minors, potentially exposing them to cyberbullying, unwanted contact and predatory behaviour.

Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said the findings were part of an investigation under the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), The Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

“Children’s content must never be visible to strangers,” he said. If TikTok does not take the steps required under the DSA, “minors are exposed to predators, to grooming and to cyberbullying,” Regnier said.

He added that children aged 13 to 15 can “easily” change their accounts from private to public, while private accounts of minors aged 16 to 17 can be viewed by anyone on the internet.

“We do not accept this,” Regnier said. “Putting default settings for minors is not a beauty contest under the DSA. It must be effective.”

TikTok can now respond to the Commission’s findings. If Brussels is dissatisfied with the company’s response, it could issue a non-compliance decision and impose a fine of up to 6% of TikTok’s total annual revenue.

TikTok, whose parent company ByteDance is based in Beijing, said it would review the findings and “continue to engage constructively with the Commission.”

“Protecting minors online is a goal we share, and we are committed to building on our strong track record of continuous improvement,” the company said.

The Commission estimates that most of TikTok’s 170 million users in the EU are children, with 7% of those aged 12 to 15 spending four to five hours a day on the app.

The investigation comes after the EU found in February that TikTok had breached another aspect of its digital rules through an “addictive design” involving features such as autoplay and infinite scrolling, which regulators said could harm users’ physical and mental health, particularly that of minors.

By Sabina Mammadli