ICO Fines TikTok £12.7 Million For Misusing Children’s Data

04.04.2023

The Information Commissioner's Office (“ICO”) has fined TikTok Information Technologies UK Limited and TikTok Inc (TikTok) £12,700,000 for a series of data protection breaches, including unlawfully using children's data.

UK data protection law requires organisations offering information society services to children under 13 to obtain consent from their parents or caregivers. TikTok failed to do so, despite being aware that children under 13 were using its platform. At the same time TikTok did not conduct sufficient checks to identify and remove underage children from its platform. The ICO estimates that TikTok allowed up to 1.4 million UK children under 13 to use its platform in 2020.

The ICO found that TikTok breached the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) between May 2018 and July 2020 by:

  • Providing its services to UK children under the age of 13 and processing their personal data without consent or authorisation from their parents or carers,
  • Failing to provide adequate information to people using the platform about how their data is collected, used, and shared in a way that is easy to understand. Without that information, users of the platform, especially children, were unlikely to make informed choices about whether and how to engage with it,
  • Failing to ensure that the personal data belonging to its UK users was processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner.

TikTok announced that it does not agree with the ICO's decision. In a statement, TikTok emphasised that it is making great efforts to prevent children under the age of 13 from accessing the application.

In addition to the ICO’s investigation of TikTok, the regulator has published the Children’s Code in order to help protect children in the digital world. The code is a statutory code of practice aimed at online services, such as apps, gaming platforms and web and social media sites, that are likely to be accessed by children.

The decision, announced in the UK, is one of the largest fines ever given by the ICO. Previously, South Korea, the Netherlands, the USA and Turkey had fined TikTok for similar violations.

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