A popular social network originating in China, TikTok, has been fined 14.54 million euros in the UK for its app “not doing enough” to limit children’s access. Likewise, the platform does not verify the identity of these minors to exclude them from the network, despite the warnings issued by the company’s employers.

The Information Commission Office has held it TikTok allows up to 1.4 million children under the age of 13 to use its platform in 2020 after failing to ensure they have parental or guardian consent to access the app, in violation of their own terms of service statement.

“We have a law for that keeping our children safe in a digital world like physically. TikTok doesn’t comply with these laws,” confirmed information commissioner John Edwards. “They’re not doing enough to check who uses their platform,” he concluded.

However, regulators have imposed fines below of the 27 million pounds (30.91 million euros) originally claimed, for deciding not to proceed with an investigation into the alleged illegal use of “special categories of data”. This type of data includes information about race, politics, religion, sexual orientation, or biometric data, among others. For its part, TikTok has rejected the decision, saying it was “weighing the next steps to take.” However, it was “happy” after seeing the penalty halved.

This fine follows a ban issued by the UK Government a few weeks ago and which vetoed Chinese government mobile apps due to concerns about cybersecurity, as explained in the House of Commons by the Chief of Staff, Oliver Dowden.

The restrictions to be implemented affect the work mobile devices of civil servants and ministers, but not their personal phones. The veto came after an opinion was issued by experts from the British National Cybersecurity Center regarding data protection. “This is the right decision based on the risks specific to government mobile”Dowden said in the House.

unexpected twist

So, the Executor of Rishi Sunak turned around 180 degrees regarding the position expressed a few weeks earlier by the Secretary for Science, Innovation and Technology, Michelle Donelan, who told outlet ‘Politico’ that the UK would not join the European Commission’s ban, which forced its employees to uninstall TikTok before March 15. The Head of Science added that owning the app was a user’s “personal choice”.