The U.S. Department of Justice sues TikTok for violating child privacy laws, alleging unauthorized collection of minors' data and unsafe interactions with adults.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a lawsuit against TikTok, accusing the popular social media platform of violating child privacy laws. The lawsuit claims that TikTok collected personal data from underage users without obtaining parental consent and allowed children to interact with adults on the app.
According to the DOJ, TikTok's practices contravened the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which mandates that any online service targeting children under 13 must secure parental consent before collecting personal information, such as email addresses. The complaint alleges that TikTok enabled minors to create accounts and share short videos without sufficient safeguards, thus exposing them to potentially inappropriate content and interactions with adults.
The lawsuit also asserts that TikTok failed to honor requests from parents to delete their children's accounts, further exacerbating the issue. This legal action follows ongoing concerns about TikTok's compliance with privacy regulations and its potential risks to child safety.
TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, has been under scrutiny in the United States due to concerns over data security and privacy. Despite these challenges, TikTok remains immensely popular, with approximately 170 million users in the U.S. alone.
This isn't the first time TikTok has faced penalties for failing to protect minors. Last year, the European Union fined the company €345 million for not adequately safeguarding young users. Specifically, the default public setting on accounts of users aged 13 to 17 allowed anyone to access their content, raising significant privacy concerns.
As the lawsuit progresses, it underscores the critical need for robust data protection measures, especially for vulnerable populations like children. The outcome of this legal battle could have far-reaching implications for how social media platforms handle user data and comply with privacy laws globally.
Source: Reuters
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