TIKTOK TO PAY £12.7M FINE AFTER DROPPING CHILD SAFETY APPEAL

TikTok is to pay a £12.7 million fine imposed by the UK's Information Commissioner's Office after dropping its appeal against the penalty. The ICO issued the fine in 2023, saying TikTok had done "very little, if anything" to stop children under 13 using the platform. The regulator's investigation found the app failed to properly check users' ages, remove underage accounts, explain how it collected and used children's data, or obtain parental consent. TikTok requires users to be at least 13, but the ICO estimated that up to 1.75 million UK children under that age used the platform in 2020. TikTok has also withdrawn a separate appeal against an ICO notice demanding information on how its algorithm processes personal data belonging to 13-to-17-year-olds. The ICO said it would now resume that investigation.

Emily Keaney, the ICO's deputy commissioner, said the regulator's action showed the importance of companies having the right protections in place to prevent access by children too young to use their services. She said how companies design online services and use children's personal information has a significant impact on young people's experience of the digital world. TikTok said it still disagreed with the ICO's 2023 decision but had chosen to pay the fine, saying the findings related to a historical period between May 2018 and July 2020 and did not reflect youth safety measures it has introduced since. TikTok has more than 30 million users in the UK. Recommender systems, the subject of the ICO's renewed inquiry, are used by platforms to profile users and tailor the content shown to them.

The fine comes as scrutiny of age-checking on social media intensifies ahead of a new government-imposed minimum age of 16 for accessing social media platforms, due to take effect next year. Ofcom, the UK's communications regulator, has said "more action from the tech industry is needed" as that deadline approaches. The ICO's resumed investigation will examine how TikTok's algorithm handles teenagers' personal data and whether it serves them potentially harmful content. No timeframe has been given for when that inquiry will conclude.