The popular social media and video sharing app, TikTok or Musical.ly in the west, has been asked to pay a US$5.7 million penalty for its alleged violation of child privacy laws. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed the charges against the company while also showing evidence that it had illegally stored and collected images, recordings, and locations of users that were not of legal age.
FTC commissioner Rohit Chopra mentioned in a statement to the press that the company apparently showed its willingness to pursue further growth despite endangering minors. TikTok has so far cooperated with the case and is willing to pay the US$5.7 million penalties under a new agreement. The penalty is the largest civil fine ever issued by the FTC for a child privacy case.
Apart from the child privacy issue case, the FTC has also requested the courts to place TikTok executives accountable for any future cases involving the use of its app. The app, which is owned by the Chinese firm ByteDance, currently has millions of users; most of which are teens and preteens. Users upload short videos on the app, which is then viewable by their friends and other users.
According to the FTC, the app itself violates child privacy laws because it does not follow the regulation of requiring parental consent prior to the collection of videos and images for users under the age of 13. The agency further explains that the app's operators knowingly collected these data, despite having the prior knowledge that a significant amount of users were younger than 13-years-old.
Thousands of parents have already filed complaints to the app's developers, with some requesting that the company immediately remove their children's personal information from the app's database. However, the company reportedly did not immediately take any of the appropriate steps to remedy the issue. The FTC stepped in and requested that the company take down the videos of its younger users. According to the agency's director of Consumer Protection, ByteDance had removed the user's accounts, but they neglected to remove the videos and images the users had already uploaded from the platform.
Aside from paying the penalty, TikTok is now being legally obligated to completely delete all information and data for users younger than 13-years-old. Children can still download and create accounts on the app, but they will only be allowed to like content and follow users. The creation and distribution of videos by users under the age limit will be prohibited in future updates of the app.
