A significant FTC ruling issued today will see video app TikTok fined $5.7 million for violating U.S. children’s privacy laws, and will impact how the app works for kids under the age of 13. In an app update being released today, all users will need to verify their age, and the under 13 year-olds will be directed to a separate, more restricted in-app experience that protects their personal information and prevents them from publishing videos to TikTok.
In a bit of bad timing for the popular video app, the ruling comes on the same day that TikTok began promoting its new safety series designed to help keep its community informed of its privacy and safety tools.
The Federal Trade Commission had been looking into TikTok back when it was known as Musical.ly, and the ruling itself is a settlement with Musical.ly
The industry self-regulatory group Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) had last spring referred Musical.ly to the FTC for violating U.S. children’s privacy law by collecting personal information for users under the age of 13. Musical.ly, technically, no longer exists. It was acquired by Chinese firm ByteDance in 2017. The app was then shut down mid-2018 while its user base was merged into TikTok. But its regulatory issues followed it to its new home.
According to the U.S. children’s privacy law COPPA, operators of apps and websites aimed at young users under the age of 13 can’t collect personal data like email addresses, IP addresses, geolocation information, or other identifiers without parental consent.
But the Musical.ly app required users to provide an email address, phone number, username, first and last name, a short biography, and a profile picture, says the FTC. The also app allowed users to interact with others by commenting on their videos and sending direct messages. And user accounts were public by default, which meant that a child’s profile bio, username, picture, and videos could be seen by other users, the FTC explained.
“The operators of Musical.ly—now known as TikTok—knew many children were using the app but they still failed to seek parental consent before collecting names, email addresses, and other personal information from users under the age of 13,” said FTC Chairman Joe Simons, in a statement. “This record penalty should be a reminder to all online services and websites that target children: We take enforcement of COPPA very seriously, and we will not tolerate companies that flagrantly ignore the law.”
COPPA law, of course, becomes a bit complex to implement for apps like TikTok that sit in a gray area between being oriented towards adults and being aimed at kids. Specifically, apps preferred by teens – like Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok – are often clamored for by younger, under 13 kids and parents comply.
But some parents are caught off guard. The FTC says Musical.ly had fielded “thousands of complaints” from parents because their children under 13 had created Musical.ly accounts.
In addition to the $5.7 million fine, the FTC settlement with Musical.ly includes an agreement that will impact how the TikTok app operates.
It says that TikTok is now considered a “mixed audience” app, which means there needs to be an age-gate implemented on the app. Instead of locking out under 13 users from the TikTok service, younger users will be directed to a different in-app experience which restricts TikTok from collecting the personal information prohibited by COPPA.
TikTok is also complying by making significant changes to its app. It will now restrict under 13 kids from being able to film and publish their videos to the TikTok app. It will also take down all videos from kids under 13.
Instead, the under 13 crowd will be able to like content and follow users. They will only be able to create and save videos to their device – not to the public TikTok network, or even just to their friends if they use the TikTok app with a private account.
As TikTok already has a large number of kids on its app, it will push an app update today that displays the new age gate to both new and existing user alike. Kids will then need to verify their birthday in order to directed to the appropriate experience.
This is not likely going to have a impact on how many kids use TikTok, however. Kids today already know to lie to age pop-ups so they can enter a restricted app. That’s how they set up accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and elsewhere.
However, the move at least puts TikTok on a level playing field with other “mixed audience” apps instead of allowing it to pretend privacy laws do not exist.
TikTok reportedly has been installed a billion times worldwide, according to recent data from Sensor Tower. The company doesn’t publicly disclose its figures, but the FTC says since 2014, more than 200 million users had downloaded the Musical.ly app worldwide, with 65 million accounts registered in the United States.