Regulators in the United Kingdom have threatened to fine TikTok over allegations it mishandled child privacy on its platform.
The U.K.-based Information Commissioner’s Office issued the China-based video app a “notice of intent” on Monday, a legal notice informing the company of potential breaches of data protection laws. These breaches allegedly occurred between May 2018 and July 2020 and could result in fines up to nearly $27 million.
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“We all want children to be able to learn and experience the digital world, but with proper data privacy protections,” argued U.K. Information Commissioner John Edwards in a press statement. “Companies providing digital services have a legal duty to put those protections in place, but our provisional view is that TikTok fell short of meeting that requirement.”
The notice claims that TikTok may have processed the data of users 13 or younger without parents’ consent and failed to provide accurate information to users in a “concise, transparent and easily understood way.”
The office said it had not come to a conclusion regarding the breach and announced that it “will carefully consider any representations from TikTok before taking a final decision.”
TikTok has been scrutinized for its internal processes and relationship with China, which is home to its parent company, ByteDance. TikTok’s chief operations officer appeared before Congress on Sept. 15 and evaded questions about the company’s operations and relationship with China.
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Parents in the United States said that they were wary of children using TikTok without supervision, according to a poll conducted by WPA Intelligence.
