Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Social Media
  3. News

TikTok under investigation again over collection of children’s personal data

Aaron Mamiit
By

Music video sharing app TikTok is again under investigation on how it collects, handles, and uses the personal information of kids, raising fresh concerns about the dangers that children face online.

Elizabeth Denham, head of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the United Kingdom, said July 2 in a parliamentary hearing that the ICO has launched an investigation into whether TikTok was in violation of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. The data privacy law requires companies to implement initiatives to protect the personal data of children.

Recommended Videos

Denham also pointed out how the open messaging system of TikTok allowed any adult to communicate with children on the platform, possibly without their parents knowing about it.

Related

“We are looking at the transparency tools for children, said Denham said. “We’re looking at the messaging system, which is completely open, we’re looking at the kind of videos that are collected and shared by children online. So we do have an active investigation into TikTok right now, so you can watch that space.”

The investigation in the U.K. follows a similar move by the ICO’s U.S. counterpart, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which slapped a record $5.7 million fine on TikTok in February 2019.

The fine was the largest civil penalty ever imposed for children’s privacy violations, according to the FTC, as the app failed to acquire parental consent for users under 13 years old. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act states that websites and apps that will collect information from children below age 13 will first need to secure parental consent.

TikTok’s collection of children’s personal information, which is now under investigation for the second time, is just one of the issues that parents should be concerned with if they let their children loose online.

Google-owned YouTube, another video sharing platform, may have to implement major changes to its recommendation algorithm as it is under investigation by the FTC for how it handles videos aimed at children.

The investigation, which is in response to complaints made as far back as 2015, is examining accusations that YouTube is failing to protect children, particularly when the service’s algorithm recommends or queues inappropriate videos. The FTC is also checking whether YouTube improperly collects data from kids.

A New York Times report also called out YouTube’s automated recommendation system for involving otherwise innocent videos of children in the platform’s pedophile problem.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Aaron Mamiit
Aaron Mamiit
Contributor
Aaron received a NES and a copy of Super Mario Bros. for Christmas when he was 4 years old, and he has been fascinated with…
Clear Mode on TikTok: Here’s what it is and how to use it
The TikTok app on a smartphone's screen. The smartphone is sitting on a white table.

When it comes to its features, TikTok is most known for all the fun bells and whistles you can add to a video that you create for its short-form video-sharing platform.

But what about the app's video-watching features? Those might be lesser known to you (or just less noticeable) because they're part of a more passive way of experiencing TikTok. But despite how easily video-watching features can fly under the radar, there is one new TikTok feature, that's worth knowing about. It's called "Clear Mode."

Read more
TikTok is launching a dedicated gaming channel
Person's hand holding a smartphone with TikTok's logo on screen, all in front of a blurred background.

TikTok is moving further into the games industry by launching its own dedicated gaming channel.

According to a report from Financial Times, the channel will allow TikTok users to access games by pressing a tab on the ByteDance-owned social media platform's homepage. Four people familiar with the matter said that the channel will feature a variety of mobile games — some of which the company already developed — with ads and additional content that users can purchase.

Read more
Is TikTok leaking drafts? Let’s take a closer look at this rumor
The TikTok app on a smartphone's screen. The smartphone is sitting on a white table.

Not every social media post is ready for prime time. Sometimes you write a post or film a video and decide that it's better to not publish it. That's fine. That's what the Drafts folder is for. That folder is built to hold your works-in-progress, mistakes, and other too-goofy-for-public-consumption posts and videos. The Drafts folder is probably one that you take for granted, but what if that folder (via a particularly viral-prone social media platform) were to have its content leaked and published for the world to see? Scary, isn't it?

That's the fear that's behind a certain, now years-long TikTok rumor going around. But is it true? Is TikTok leaking its users' drafts? In this guide, we're taking a closer look at this rumor and fact-checking it.
The rumor
As far as we can tell, the whole "TikTok leaks drafts" rumor dates back to at least the summer of 2020. It's not a rumor that really made mainstream news headlines, but it did get some coverage with lesser-known websites, and it does have a tendency to resurface repeatedly. The last time it resurfaced was in August 2022. Here's what we know about it:

Read more