London – The United Kingdom data protection guard said Monday that he is investigating how Tiktok uses adolescents personal information to give them content recommendations when they use The Social Network Platform.
The Information Commissioner’s office said there are growing concerns about how social media platforms were using data generated by children’s online activity to feed their recommendation algorithms and the potential for young people to see inappropriate or harmful content as a result.
The regulator said he wanted to guarantee the robustness of Tiktok’s security procedures when it comes to using personal adolescents information between 13 and 17 years.
“It’s what they are collecting, it’s how they work,” said information commissioner John Edwards. “I will expect to discover that there will be many benign and positive uses of children’s data in their recommendation systems.”
“What worries me is whether they are robust enough to prevent children from being exposed to damage, either by addictive practices in the device or on the platform, or by content they see, or other unhealthy practices,” he said.
As part of the investigation, the regulator will also analyze how the Reddit online forum site and the IMGUR IMGUR exchange site use children’s personal data and how they estimate or verify the age of a child.
Tiktok, operated by China Bytedance technology firm, said in a statement that it was “deeply committed to guaranteeing a positive experience for young people in Tiktok.”
“Our recommendation systems are designed and operate under strict and comprehensive measures that protect the privacy and safety of adolescents, including leaders of industry leaders in the industry and robust restrictions in the content allowed in food for adolescents,” he said.
In 2023, The regulator imposed a fine of 12.7 million pounds (around $ 16 million) in the application to share videos to misuse children and violate other protections for the personal information of young users.
The office said at that time that Tiktok did not identify and properly eliminate children under 13 years of the platform, and that allowed up to 1.4 million children in the United Kingdom to use the application in 2020, despite the rules of the platform that prohibit children that young people establish accounts.
