UK launches investigation into how TikTok, Imgur and Reddit use kids' data
"If social media and video sharing platforms want to benefit from operating in the UK they must comply with data protection law."
The UK’s data protection authority has launched three investigations into how TikTok, Reddit, and Imgur handle the personal information of child users amid growing concerns over online safety and data privacy.
Last week, MPs met in Westminster Hall to debate whether the minimum age for joining social media should be raised from 13 to 16 years old.
Now the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has heaped more fuel on the bonfire with a probe into a trio of platforms.
It will investigate how TikTok uses the personal data of British kids aged between 13 and 17 years old to generate recommendations and deliver suggested content to their feeds.
Officials will focus on whether the data generated by children’s online activity is being exploited in ways that could expose them to inappropriate or harmful content.
Investigations into Reddit and Imgur will assess how the platforms manage UK children’s personal information. This will include their use of tools designed to verify or estimate a user’s age, helping to ensure children receive age-appropriate content or are barred from access to certain services.
The watchdog bites back
The regulator said the investigations form part of broader efforts to ensure digital platforms are designed with child safety in mind.
“At this stage, we are examining whether any breaches of data protection laws have occurred,” the watchdog stated. “If we find sufficient evidence of legal violations, we will present our findings to the companies involved and seek their response before reaching a final decision.”
John Edwards, UK Information Commissioner, said: “We welcome the technology and innovation that companies like social media bring to the UK and want them to thrive in our economy. But this cannot be at the expense of children’s privacy.
“My message is simple. If social media and video sharing platforms want to benefit from operating in the UK they must comply with data protection law."
In 2023, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) fined TikTok £12.7 million for "multiple breaches of data protection law, including the unlawful processing of children’s personal data".
The ICO claimed that in 2020, TikTok permitted up to 1.4 million UK children under 13 to access its platform despite its own policies prohibiting account creation for kids of that age.
Last year, OFCOM ordered social media giants to "tame" their "toxic algorithms, demanding they introduce "robust" age-checks to prevent children from seeing harmful content such as suicide, self-harm or pornography and filter or downrank this material in recommended content.
We have contacted all three firms for comment.
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