UK Fines TikTok IDR 243 Billion for Violation of Children's Data Protection

British Information Commissioner, John Edwards. (photo: twitter @ICOnews)

JAKARTA - On Tuesday, April 4 the UK's data monitoring agency, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), announced that it had fined TikTok 12.7 million pounds (around 243 billion rupiah) for violating data protection laws, including the use of children's personal data. under 13 years without parental consent.

The ICO estimates that TikTok allowed as many as 1.4 million children under the age of 13 in the UK to use their platform in 2020, even though TikTok sets a minimum age of 13 to create an account.

The data breach occurred between May 2018 and July 2020, during which the video app owned by the Chinese company did not carry out sufficient checks to find out who was using the platform and did not remove minors using the app.

"There are laws that keep our children as safe in the digital world as they are in the physical world. TikTok doesn't comply with those laws," UK Information Commissioner John Edwards said in a statement.

"Children's data may have been used to track and profile them, which could lead to harmful or inappropriate content for them," he added.

A TikTok spokesperson said the company did not agree with the ICO decision, but was pleased that the fine had been reduced from the maximum amount of £27 million proposed by the ICO last year.

"We invest heavily to help keep children under the age of 13 off our platform, and our security team of 40.000 people work hard to keep our platform safe for our community," the spokesperson said. "We will continue to review the decision and are considering next steps."

The ICO fine follows moves by Western governments and institutions in recent weeks, including the UK, to ban the use of TikTok on their official devices out of security concerns.