The US Justice Department says that TikTok and ByteDance, its owner, have been using children’s information without prior consent and are not doing enough to stop children’s involvement in the platform. This implies that several abuses on the site come under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), as outlined in a lawsuit filed on Friday.
The Justice Department says that TikTok has been permitting children to sign up for accounts without parental permission, which it has been using to obtain children’s data, including phone numbers, email addresses, and location data. Also, the lawsuit states that TikTok has not provided the parents with ways to remove their children’s information as required by COPPA.
Background of the Case
This lawsuit was filed after TikTok signed a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) the previous year in 2019, where TikTok admitted to violating the Children’s Internet Privacy Act (CIPA). Included in the settlement terms, TikTok was to undertake measures to allow it to come within the ambit of COPPA. However, the Justice Department has argued that TikTok violates these regulations and the 2019 injunction.
Kids Mode and Ongoing Violations
While TikTok has a ‘Kids Mode’ for children under 13 to use the platform, according to the complaint letter, TikTok has knowingly allowed children to sign and use the TikTok environment. This practice entails obtaining large quantities of personal data from children without informing them that they are about to do so or without getting from their parents the type of consent that the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act requires under the threat of sanctions for noncompliance.
Of course, TikTok had legal problems before. It is currently combating a possible ban in the United States of America. The platform was accused in the past of not safeguarding young users and was penalised in Europe over data matters.
Already in January of this year, the FTC raised concerns about TikTok’s possible violation of COPPA. The current was filed based on an FTC referral compelling the firm to cease advertising or promoting high-risk products. TikTok purposefully abandoned the safety and privacy of Kids on the App and thereby was detrimental to millions of children on the TikTok app, said FTC Chair Lina Khan.
As a result, TikTok’s company provided an affirmative response to the said allegations through Michael Hughes, the TikTok spokesperson. “Regarding these claims, there cannot be any partnership because many of these vices stem from past occurrences and practices, which are mostly false or have been addressed,” Hughes said. He discussed that TikTok has protectionist measures towards kids… children filtering, accounts that contain children considered to be of that age deleted, screentime default limits, and providing children with family pairing for more privacy.
Nevertheless, according to the lawsuit, TikTok must adopt adequate measures to ensure that children under 13 avoid creating an account and using the app. It claims that until the end of 2020, TikTok permitted kids who were denied the account creation because of their actual age to try to change it and state the other one despite the company’s knowledge that the user was a child.
