TikTok video app and its effect on children
Popular video app TikTok is violating children’s privacy law, according to privacy watchdogs, as they perceived that this might be putting kids at risk.
In this era, technology has become a major part of many people’s entertainment. Even young kids use gadgets and various applications. Nowadays, more and more people are getting hooked to said video application.
The video app, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, even became more popular amid the enhanced community quarantine.
It offers various features that also boost the creativity of the users. Celebrities in the Philippines also started to reign on the said social media platform. Apparently, the hype is also devouring children who find it entertaining to make and share their videos.
However, a privacy group composed of 20 members including the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and the Center for Digital Democracy, filed a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission stating that TikTok is collecting personal information of children under 13 years old without the consent of their parents, based on the report from Inquirer.
Reportedly, this app also received scrutiny officials in the US with the concern about national-security risks because of the fact that a Chinese company owed this and it is very popular among children.
In 2019, the video app paid $5.7 million as a fine to FTC for over-collecting personal information from children aged 13 years and below. This is a violation of the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
Following that, TikTok updated with restricted mode for younger users. However, privacy watchdogs stressed out that it is easy for kids to create their accounts without the consent of their parents.
It is because kids can still sign up and create their accounts by faking their birth date in order to use the adult version. The privacy group said in a joint statement that it is “putting them at risk for both TikTok’s commercial data uses and inappropriate contact from adults.”
Based on the report, the video app uses data about the users’ location, message contents, and videos to watch in order to give suggested videos to them for targeted advertising.
FTC said that it has received the complaint but haven’t commented on it yet.
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