EU Investigates TikTok Over Breach of Child Protection
By Movieguide® Contributor
TikTok is under investigation over content breaches of children’s privacy and safety.
“The European Union will investigate whether ByteDance’s TikTok breached online content rules aimed at protecting children and ensuring transparent advertising, an official said on Monday, putting the social media platform at risk of a hefty fine,” Reuters reported on Monday.
The investigation comes one year after the platform received a €345m fine from the Irish Data Watchdog for data breaches concerning children’s accounts.
Per The Guardian, the EU will look at algorithms and advertisements believed to lead young users towards harmful “rabbit holes,” which result in “behavioral addictions” and other issues. The New York Times adds that TikTok’s age verification tools will also be under scrutiny.
Movieguide® reported how TikTok exposes minors to promotional sex and drug videos:
The Wall Street Journal recently published a report that shed light on how the social media site TikTok exposes minors to pornographic content and drug usage through search algorithms.
The report, titled “How TikTok Serves Up Sex and Drug Videos to Minors,” conducted its experiment by creating fake accounts that represented users between 13 and 15 to observe what content the app emphasized.
“TikTok served one account registered as a 13-year-old at least 569 videos about drug use, references to cocaine and meth addiction, and promotional videos for online sales of drug products and paraphernalia. Hundreds of similar videos appeared in the feeds of the Journal’s other minor accounts,” the report found. “TikTok also showed the Journal’s teenage users more than 100 videos from accounts recommending paid pornography sites and sex shops. Thousands of others were from creators who labeled their content as for adults only.”
Under the EU’s Digital Services Act, ByteDance could face damages of up to 6% of its global turnover. In 2023, the company made $110 billion in sales. So, if found guilty, the maximum fine will likely be around $6.6 billion.
“TikTok has become a target of parents, policymakers and regulators who are concerned about the company’s data-collection practices and the platform’s effect on young people’s mental health,” the New York Times said.
“As a platform that reaches millions of children and teenagers, TikTok must fully comply with the [Digital Services Act] and has a particular role to play in the protection of minors online,” said Thierry Breton, the EU’s commissioner for internal market.
He continued, “We are launching this formal infringement proceeding today to ensure that proportionate action is taken to protect the physical and emotional wellbeing of young Europeans. We must spare no effort to protect our children.”
- Content: +1Share:
- Content: +4