TikTok could be slapped with a £27m fine for breaking UK data protection laws and parents are being warned to check their children's accounts.
The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) may fine the sixth most popular social media site in the world for breaking UK data protection laws. The video-sharing platform may have processed the data of under-13s without appropriate consent.
The ICO issued TikTok Inc and TikTok Information Technologies UK Limited with a notice of intent- a legal document that precedes a potential fine. They believe the breach may have been made between May 2018 and July 2020.
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The ICO investigation found the multi-billion pound company may have also failed to provide proper information to its users in a 'concise, transparent and easily understood way'. They also believe TikTok may have processed special category data without legal grounds to do so.
TikTok is one of the most popular social media platforms as it is estimated more than three billion people have downloaded the app. In March 2020 people spent, on average, 858 minutes of their lives per month watching videos on their site.
The maximum fine the ICO can impose is four per cent of TikTok's global annual turnover. Information Commissioner John Edwards said: "We all want children to be able to learn and experience the digital world, but with proper data privacy protections.
"Companies providing digital services have a legal duty to put those protections in place, but our provisional view is that TikTok fell short of meeting that requirement."
The social media giant has introduced a range of features to improve privacy and safety such as allowing parents to link their accounts to their children's. They can also disable direct messaging for kids under 16.
The ICO said its findings were provisional and no conclusion will be made at this stage about whether there had been any breach of data protection law.
It added: "We will carefully consider any representations from TikTok before taking a final decision."
Panda Security advises parents to set up 'Family Pairing' in order to ensure your child is safe while using the app
Enabling Family Pairing in settings allows both parents and children can have own accounts. This setting has an array of different ways to help manage and keep children safe online. It allows a parent to manage a child's screen time, direct messages and the type of content they see.
This setting can only be changed by the parent because it is locked with a passcode.
How to set up Family Pairing:
- Tap the three dots next to your user profile, then scroll down to Digital Wellbeing.
- Tap Family Pairing and select whether the phone you’re using belongs to you or your child.
- A QR code will be displayed on your phone. To link your accounts, your child must scan the QR code.
- You can now access and manage the security features of your child’s account.
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