UK watchdog hits TikTok with £12.7m fine for mishandling children’s data

TikTok has been fined £12.7 million ($15.9 million) by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for violating data protection laws, including using personal information of children under 13 without their parent’s consent.

The ICO estimates that TikTok allowed up to 1.4 million UK children under 13 to use its platform in 2020, despite setting 13 as the minimum age to create an account. The data breaches took place between May 2018 and July 2020, with TikTok failing to verify the age of its users and remove those who were underage.

The agency’s investigation revealed that children’s data might have been used to track and profile them, exposing them to potentially harmful or inappropriate content.

A TikTok spokesperson disagreed with the ICO’s decision but acknowledged that the fine had been reduced from the possible £27 million set out by the ICO last year. The company claimed to invest heavily in keeping under-13s off the platform and that its 40,000-strong safety team works to keep the platform safe.

The fine comes amid recent moves by Western governments, including the UK, to ban TikTok’s usage on official devices over security concerns.