The United Kingdom’s data privacy regulator has launched an investigation into TikTok over the use of children’s personal data, according to an official statement.
The announcement came on Monday from the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). According to the watchdog, it has started investigating how TikTok processes the data of users aged between 13 and 17 to recommend content in their feed.
Reddit and Imgur have also come under the regulator’s scrutiny. They will be probed in connection with child data and its usage in the UK, the ICO has said. The overall investigation will assess how these platforms protect the privacy of minors.
“This is in light of growing concerns about social media and video sharing platforms using data generated by children’s online activity in their recommender systems, which could lead to young people being served inappropriate or harmful content,” the statement reads.
In April 2023, TikTok was fined nearly $16 million by the ICO for violating child privacy; the company processed minors’ personal data without parental consent. The violations took place between May 2018 and July 2020.
“At this stage, we are investigating whether there have been any infringements of data protection legislation,” the ICO says. “If we find there is sufficient evidence that any of these companies have broken the law, we will put this to them and obtain their representations before reaching a final conclusion.”
There has been no comment from any of the three companies so far.
