Specifically for videos that appeared on Musical.ly
By Julia Alexander Feb 27, 2019, 2:03pm EST
TikTok will pay $5.7 million over alleged children’s privacy law violations
TikTok will pay $5.7 million to settle accusations that it violated children’s privacy law, the Federal Trade Commission said today. The short-form video app and social network is also being required to gain parental approval for users under 13 years of age, to comply with federal law. All videos previously uploaded by people under the age of 13 will be removed as well.
The FTC alleged that TikTok “illegally collected personal information from children” by not obtaining their parents’ permission before they signed up, putting it in violation of COPPA — the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. COPPA dictates that any app or website targeted at children, such as TikTok (and its former app, Musical.ly), must ask children under the age of 13 to get parental consent to share personal information with an app or website.
TIKTOK LET CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 13 USE ITS APP WITHOUT PARENTAL CONSENT, THE FTC SAYS
Nearly every social network and online service operating in the US asks users to agree to terms that prohibit children under 13 from using the product, mostly to avoid liability. Yet a large percentage of Musical.ly users were under the age of 13, according to the complaint issued by the FTC, and there were “thousands of complaints from parents that their children under 13 had created Musical.ly accounts.”
“The operators of Musical.ly — now known as TikTok — knew many children were using the app but they still failed to seek parental consent before collecting names, email addresses, and other personal information from users under the age of 13,” FTC Chairman Joe Simons stated in a press release. The FTC said the $5.7 million settlement is the largest civil penalty ever in a children’s privacy case.
TikTok’s trust and safety team issued a response following the news, saying that they have taken additional measures to increase safety and protection around kids under 13. The company is launching a separate in-app experience for kids under 13 that will place “extensive limitations on content and user interaction,” according to the statement.
“In the younger ecosystem, users cannot do things like share their videos on TikTok, comment on others’ videos, message with users, or maintain a profile or followers,” the statement reads.
Musical.ly had 100 million active monthly users by the time it was rolled into TikTok, a larger app owned by Chinese startup Bytedance, in August 2018. TikTok has more than 500 million users worldwide, a large number of which are children. More than 200 million users downloaded Musical.ly worldwide, according to the release, with 65 million accounts registered in the United States. Update (February 27, 3 pm ET):The story has been updated to include TikTok’s response.
By Julia Alexander Feb 27, 2019, 2:03pm EST
TikTok will pay $5.7 million over alleged children’s privacy law violations
TikTok will pay $5.7 million to settle accusations that it violated children’s privacy law, the Federal Trade Commission said today. The short-form video app and social network is also being required to gain parental approval for users under 13 years of age, to comply with federal law. All videos previously uploaded by people under the age of 13 will be removed as well.
The FTC alleged that TikTok “illegally collected personal information from children” by not obtaining their parents’ permission before they signed up, putting it in violation of COPPA — the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. COPPA dictates that any app or website targeted at children, such as TikTok (and its former app, Musical.ly), must ask children under the age of 13 to get parental consent to share personal information with an app or website.
TIKTOK LET CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 13 USE ITS APP WITHOUT PARENTAL CONSENT, THE FTC SAYS
Nearly every social network and online service operating in the US asks users to agree to terms that prohibit children under 13 from using the product, mostly to avoid liability. Yet a large percentage of Musical.ly users were under the age of 13, according to the complaint issued by the FTC, and there were “thousands of complaints from parents that their children under 13 had created Musical.ly accounts.”
“The operators of Musical.ly — now known as TikTok — knew many children were using the app but they still failed to seek parental consent before collecting names, email addresses, and other personal information from users under the age of 13,” FTC Chairman Joe Simons stated in a press release. The FTC said the $5.7 million settlement is the largest civil penalty ever in a children’s privacy case.
TikTok’s trust and safety team issued a response following the news, saying that they have taken additional measures to increase safety and protection around kids under 13. The company is launching a separate in-app experience for kids under 13 that will place “extensive limitations on content and user interaction,” according to the statement.
“In the younger ecosystem, users cannot do things like share their videos on TikTok, comment on others’ videos, message with users, or maintain a profile or followers,” the statement reads.
Musical.ly had 100 million active monthly users by the time it was rolled into TikTok, a larger app owned by Chinese startup Bytedance, in August 2018. TikTok has more than 500 million users worldwide, a large number of which are children. More than 200 million users downloaded Musical.ly worldwide, according to the release, with 65 million accounts registered in the United States. Update (February 27, 3 pm ET):The story has been updated to include TikTok’s response.
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