Britain's data watchdog said today it had fined TikTok £12.7m for multiple breaches of data protection law, including using the personal data of children aged under 13 without parental consent.
The Chinese-owned video app has not done enough to check who is using the platform and remove the underage children who are, the Information Commissioner's Office said.
TikTok had faced a fine £27m, but the final total has been reduced to £12.7m.
The ICO said more than one million children under 13 were using TikTok in 2020, despite its terms of use not allowing that.
It added that personal data belonging to those children was used without parental consent and that the company did not do enough to check who was using the social media app and take enough action to remove the underage children that were.
Information commissioner John Edwards said: "There are laws in place to make sure our children are as safe in the digital world as they are in the physical world. TikTok did not abide by those laws".
"As a consequence, an estimated one million under 13s were inappropriately granted access to the platform, with TikTok collecting and using their personal data," Mr Edwards said.
"That means that their data may have been used to track them and profile them, potentially delivering harmful, inappropriate content at their very next scroll," he said.
"TikTok should have known better. TikTok should have done better. Our £12.7m fine reflects the serious impact their failures may have had," he added.
TikTok said today that it disagrees with the £12.7m fine issued by the Information Commissioner's Office for failures around the use of the personal data of children and is "considering next steps".
"TikTok is a platform for users aged 13 and over. We invest heavily to help keep under 13s off the platform and our 40,000 strong safety team works around the clock to help keep the platform safe for our community," it said in a statement.
"While we disagree with the ICO's decision, which relates to May 2018-July 2020, we are pleased that the fine announced today has been reduced to under half the amount proposed last year," it said.
"We will continue to review the decision and are considering next steps," it added.
