TikTok to pay $5.7 million fine

Media app TikTok has been reportedly asked by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to pay $5.7 million in order to settle the acquisitions of violating children’s privacy law. Also, putting it in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the FTC alleged that TikTok illegally collected personal information from children by not obtaining their parents’ permission before they signed up.

All videos uploaded by children under the age of 13 will be removed from the app. Besides, the FTC has given strict instructions that from now on, the app is required to gain parental approval for users under 13 years of age, to comply with federal law.

The $5.7 million settlement is the largest civil penalty ever in a children’s privacy case, according to the FTC.

As per the complaint issued by the FTC, there were thousands of complaints from parents that their children under 13 had created Musical.ly, now known as TikTok, accounts. However, despite every social network and online service operating in the US asking users to agree to terms that prohibit children under 13 from using the product, mostly to avoid liability, a large percentage of Musical.ly users were under the age of 13. TikTok’s trust and safety team has issued a sentence in response saying that they have taken additional measures to increase safety and protection around kids under 13.

“The company is launching a separate in-app experience for kids under 13 that will place extensive limitations on content and user interaction. In the younger ecosystem, users cannot do things like share their videos on TikTok, comment on others’ videos, message with users, or maintain
a profile or followers,” they said.

TikTok has more than 500 million users worldwide, a large number of whom are children.

More than 200 million users have downloaded Musical.ly worldwide, according to the release, with 65 million accounts registered in the United States.