LONDON (AP) — The U.K.’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has launched an investigation into how TikTok uses personal data of teenagers to inform its content recommendation algorithms.
The ICO’s inquiry comes amid growing concerns about the use of data generated by children’s online activity to influence content delivered by social media platforms. Specifically, the investigation will focus on how the app uses personal data from users aged 13 to 17 to tailor content and whether this may lead to exposure to inappropriate or harmful material.
The data protection regulator aims to assess TikTok’s safety procedures related to the handling of teenagers’ data and ensure that its practices meet the necessary standards to protect young users from potential risks.
John Edwards, the Information Commissioner, emphasized the importance of examining the use of children’s data in recommendation systems. “It’s important to understand both how data is collected and how it is used,” he said. “While there may be many positive uses of children’s data, the concern is whether current measures are sufficient to prevent harm, including addictive practices or exposure to harmful content.”
As part of its ongoing investigation, the ICO will also examine the practices of other platforms, including Reddit and Imgur, to determine how they handle children’s data and verify users’ ages.
TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese tech company ByteDance, responded to the investigation, reaffirming its commitment to safeguarding young users. The company stated that its recommender system is designed with extensive measures to protect the privacy and safety of teens, including advanced safety features and restrictions on content available to younger users. In 2023, the ICO fined TikTok £12.7 million (around $16 million) for breaching regulations regarding the protection of children’s data. The fine was issued after it was found that the platform had failed to properly identify and remove children under 13, allowing as many as 1.4 million underage users in the UK to access the app in 2020, despite its own policies prohibiting such accounts.
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