British regulator Ofcom on Wednesday fined TikTok 1.875 million pounds (2.23 million euros) because the company did not accurately respond to a formal request for information about the functionality of its “Family Pairing” parental controls, which it introduced in 2020. With the tool, parents and young people can customize their safety settings to individual needs and, for example, limit screen time and direct contact via direct messages.
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Last year, Ofcom asked several video platforms how they were complying with legal requirements to protect children from harmful content. The information should be included in a transparency report with tips for parents. TikTok was among those contacted. The company, which belongs to Chinese group ByteDance, responded on September 4. According to the regulator TikTok contacted him again on December 1 and acknowledged that the data provided was incorrect and that an internal investigation was being conducted into the cause of the inaccuracies.
TikTok is also in the focus of the EU Commission
As a result of this disclosure, Ofcom itself launched an investigation into the matter on December 14. In this context, “numerous deficiencies in TikTok’s data management processes” were discovered, the authority writes. The company not only had inadequate internal controls, but it was also “slow in bringing the error to the Office’s attention.” Due to this delay, details about the effectiveness of TikTok’s parental controls were forced to be removed from the report. It was only on March 28 – more than seven months after the original deadline – that the company finally provided “accurate, albeit incomplete, data.”
Ofcom considers the imposed fine to be justified because TikTok is “a large, well-equipped company that is aware of its regulatory obligations.” The shortcomings also had a “direct impact on our regulatory work.” In the EU, TikTok is considered a “gatekeeper” and must also comply with strict obligations under the Digital Services Act (DSA). In April, the portal operator “voluntarily” suspended reward functions in TikTok Lite after the EU Commission threatened to take strict action against the relevant program.
(AKN)
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