The Molly Russell Foundation (MRF) has welcomed the £12.7million fine levied against TikTok because it “did not do enough” to make sure underage children were not using its platform.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said the social media platform allowed up to 1.4m children under 13 to use it in 2020, which was against its terms of service. Nor did it ensure their data was used correctly.
An MRF spokesperson said: “We welcome today’s fine for TikTok’s historical failures that potentially exposed a million children to potential harm. For too long social media companies chose to turn a blind eye to children using their sites.
“However this is an industry-wide problem, and it’s therefore time for the ICO to take enforcement action against other major platforms that fail to identify children and prevent them from being targeted by harmful algorithms.
“Strong regulation is vitally important to protect children from dangerous-by-design platforms, and UK regulators should hold now companies’ feet to the fire.”
John Edwards, UK Information Commissioner said: “TikTok should have known better. TikTok should have done better. Our £12.7m fine reflects the serious impact their failures may have had. They did not do enough to check who was using their platform or take sufficient action to remove the underage children that were using their platform.”
The fine is less than half the £27m that the ICO originally said it might fine TikTok for the breaches.
It reduced the potential fine after deciding not to pursue an initial finding that the company had unlawfully used the “special category data”.
TikTok said it disagrees with the decision and was considering its options. It added it was pleased the fine had been halved.
If you’re struggling just text MRF to 85258 so you can speak to a trained volunteer from Shout, the UK’s Crisis Text Line service
