After the announcement of the sanction almost 12.7 million pounds (15.8 million dollars) to the social network TikTok At the beginning of April, the British data control agency wrote this Monday a new chapter in the plot that reveals how the platform breached privacy regulations and has put at risk the personal information of the users.
The most recent report of the Office of the Information Commissioner (ICOfor its acronym in English) presents concrete examples of children under 13 years that were already considered influencer on the platform and of “substantial content and likely to attract 13-year-old users.”
One of the cases cited in the text is that of one of the “high level influencers” which has 5.4 million followers since July 2022 and his date of birth was in the year 2007 “which means that he did not turn 13 until 2020. However, in his account there are several videos from before that date.
“A video of the user performing a backflip uploaded in 2019 (at which time he would have been under 13 years old) received more than 97,000 likes,” the report states.
On the subject, the report adds screenshots of one of the videos in which it points out “it is identifiable to the user as a little boy”.
“Given his age, It is reasonable to expect that this content is likely to appeal to others under the age of 13.” concludes.
Another case mentioned in the report concerns a 9 year old influencer, born in 2012, who “became famous performing the song from the Disney movie ‘The Little Mermaid.’”
According to research carried out by the ICO the user “is described as one of the ’18 Top Kid Influencers’” for a digital marketing platform.
“In TikTok, his videos appear singing and playing digital instruments,” he summarizes.
The report also reflects the case of another “influencer” born in 2006 Known for her dance covers.
“She has more than 30 million followers and is said to be one of the main ‘influencers for children,'” she adds about the user who in a 2019 post had over 400,000 likes.
With regard to content “susceptible to attracting young children”, the British body’s report cites several specific cases of “unboxing” gifts for young children. Although the user is not specified, the report does indicate that the account had more than 170,000 followers.
In the preliminary report on the sanction to the platform, it was also shown that TikTok would have allowed up to 1.4 million British children children under 13 will use the social network in 2020.
Despite the fact that TikTok requires that children under 13 years of age have the consent of their parents to use the platform, the ICO assured that many could create accounts without parental permission.
“There are laws that guarantee that our children are just as safe in the digital world as they are in the physical one. TikTok did not comply with those laws”, said on the subject the Information Commissioner, john edwardsaccording to BBC.
“As a result, an estimated one million children under the age of 13 gained improper access to the platform, and TikTok collected and used their personal data,” it added.
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Source-www.infobae.com