The U.Ok.’s privateness watchdog has launched investigations into three social media corporations over how they go about defending the privateness of youngsters on their respective platforms.
The Data Commissioner’s Workplace (ICO) introduced as we speak that it’s trying into how TikTok makes use of private data of 13- to 17-year-olds to suggest movies, “in mild of rising considerations” round how younger persons are offered with dangerous content material.
On the similar time, the ICO can also be trying into how Reddit and Imgur assess the age of its customers within the U.Ok., in addition to how they use youngsters’s private data.
Whereas it’s nonetheless early days, the ICO says that it’s whether or not there have been any knowledge safety laws infringements earlier than deciding its subsequent steps.
The probes kind a part of a broader push from U.Ok. authorities to carry social platforms into examine. Final yr, regulator Ofcom launched an investigation into OnlyFans over alleged age-verification failures, although it dropped this probe final month. And again in 2023, the ICO fined TikTok $16 million for offering companies to youngsters underneath the age of 13 with out express parental consent to course of their knowledge.
