TikTok drops appeal against £12.7m ICO fine⁠.

TikTok will pay a £12.7m fine to the Information Commissioner's Office after dropping its appeal against it.² The ICO imposed the fine in 2023 because TikTok did not do enough to make sure children under 13 were not using the platform, and that their data was used correctly.¹ When it issued the fine, the regulator said TikTok had done "very little, if anything" to address underage use of its service.²

TikTok's own minimum age is 13, but the ICO estimated that up to 1.75 million UK children under that age used the service in 2020.² The regulator also found that TikTok did not tell users how their data was being collected and used, and did not obtain parental consent.² TikTok has more than 30m users in the UK.²

TikTok has also withdrawn a second appeal, against an ICO information notice asking how its recommender systems process the personal information of 13 to 17 year olds.¹ That appeal had stopped the ICO from progressing its investigation of those systems.¹ The regulator said it would now resume the investigation.² The Guardian reports that the inquiry covers how the algorithm processes teenagers' personal data and how it serves potentially harmful content.² Recommender systems are what social media platforms use to profile users and suggest content based on what they do online.¹

TikTok said it disagreed with the ICO's 2023 decision, and that the findings related to a historical period, May 2018 to July 2020, which did not reflect the youth safety measures and policies it had brought in since.¹ Emily Keaney, the ICO's deputy commissioner, said: "Our successful action against TikTok shows how important it is for companies to have the right protections in place, including to prevent access by children who are not old enough to be using their services."¹ She said the ICO welcomed TikTok's withdrawal of its appeals following the Upper Tribunal's decision.¹

Age checks at tech platforms will be at the front of the government's new under-16 age limit for social media, which comes into force next year.² Ofcom has said "more action from the tech industry is needed" on enforcing age limits.² In Australia, which brought in a ban for under-16s last December, the eSafety commissioner has said a "substantial proportion" of under-16s kept their accounts, made new ones or got round the age checks.²

The algorithm is the next question

The fine itself is the least interesting part. It covers a period that ended six years ago, and for a platform with more than thirty million British users it is not a large sum. The part worth your attention is the second appeal. With it gone, the ICO can go back to asking how a recommendation system uses young people's data and what it chooses to show them. That is the same question any business that profiles its customers, with an AI tool or without one, should be able to answer about its own systems.

Look at what the ICO actually objected to. It was not a leak or a hack. It was not knowing who was using the service, not acting on it, not telling people how their data was used and not asking parents. If anything you run could be used by children, or sorts and targets people by what they do, the useful questions are plain ones. Who is it serving, what does it use, and could you explain why it showed someone what it showed them.

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