TikTok, fined 345 million for breaking minor protection laws in the EU

Ireland's data regulator has fined the social network TikTok 345 million euros for violating community regulations on the protection of minors, as reported this Friday.

The Data Protection Commission (DPC) has announced in a statement its decision to punish the video platform for its practices between July 31, 2020 and December 31 of that year, although the company claims to have modified them since then.

By default, the social network opened minors' accounts to the general public, thus allowing adults to have access to them and be able to send direct messages to their owners.

Eight violated clauses

The DPC, which regulates the platform within the EU, explained that its investigation, opened in September 2021, has revealed that eight clauses of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) were violated for, among other things, not providing transparent information. to its underage users.

It was also considered that TikTok did not take into account the risks for children under 13 years of age who had access to the platform, despite the fact that that is the minimum age to open an account.

This decision by the DPC comes after the platform had already suffered a fine of 12.7 million pounds (14.8 million euros) in April imposed by the British regulator for processing the data of 1.4 million minors. 13 years old who used the Internet without parental consent.

All accounts opened by minors under 16 years of age since 2021 are set to be private by default, so only people authorized by the user can access their contents.