Critics Worry Young TikTok Users Aren’t Protected, App Faces US Ban

TikTok, a popular app for creating short-form videos, is facing a range of legal problems. Some parents are concerned about children under 14 using the app. The app’s owner has also faced accusations that the company’s owner is sending data to China without user consent and is now being forced to sell the app over this issue or face a TikTok ban.

Trump Administration Says TikTok Sends User Info To China, Owner Must Sell or Face TikTok Ban

TikTok is owned by a Chinese social media company called ByteDance. The Trump Administration has suggested that “credible evidence” is available which indicates that TikTok collects data from users without their consent and sends it to Chinese servers.

According to the Trump Administration, this information could then be used by the Chinese Communist Party. This supposed threat might jeopardize United States security, the Trump Administration says.

TikTok and Byte Dance have been hit with several class action lawsuits accusing the company and the app of using consumer data in this way without their consent.

To combat this alleged security threat, the Trump Administration has demanded that ByteDance sell TikTok and divest all United States assets, says Fox Business.

Reportedly, the administration has given the company 90 days in which to complete the transaction and requires the company to inform the Committee on Foreign Investment before the sale is completed. The company has also been required to destroy all user data within 90 days, a process which would be audited by the Committee on Foreign Investment. 

If the company does not sell, the Trump Administration has threatened a TikTok ban to virtually shut down its U.S. operations. This move would reportedly nullify ByteDance’s purchase of TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly. Musical.ly was purchased by ByteDance and the company then developed TikTok from that app. 

ByteDance has asked for more time to complete the sale and TikTok has protested the order completely. According to TikTok, the executive order “was issued without any due process,” quotes Fox Business.

Microsoft has expressed interest in buying TikTok, and supposedly is the main contender for the sale at this point. 

Critics Worry Many TikTok Users Are Under 14

To make matters worse, many critics worry that the company is sending data not only from adults, but also from children under the age of 14, which can mean more severe legal repercussions. 

TikTok allegedly released a report of the ages of the 59 million users who use the app on a daily basis. According to the company’s own estimation, about one third if TikTok users are 14 and under. However, critics worry that the company might not be doing enough to protect the rights and privacy of these users.

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act dictates that parents of children under the age of 13 must give consent for the child to use an internet site. Unfortunately, some users worry that the app does not have enough protections in place to ensure that young TikTok users are not using the app in ways that they should not.

For instance, TikTok reportedly allows users under 13-years-old to use the app, but they can only use a version that prohibits them from sharing videos and personal information. The app reportedly asks users to enter their birth date when creating an account. However, critics say that nothing would prevent a child from lying in the app and misrepresenting themselves as older. 

TikTok has fired back at this criticism, saying that the user’s own input of their birthday into the site is not the only age-related protection the site offers. Allegedly, the site uses facial recognition software to determine age and compares their social circles and elements of their profile to others in their supposed age group, in the interest of verifying their stated age. 

Despite this defense, experts debate TikTok and ByteDance’s possible responsibility or liability in the issue of determining the ages of its users and protecting them accordingly. 

Reportedly, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act states that if a site has “actual knowledge” that a user is under 13, the site must get parental consent for the child to continue using the site, or must delete the child’s personal information from the site.

However, advocates for children have claimed that the wording of the law would encourage sites like TikTok to intentionally avoid obtaining knowledge of their users’ age, as remaining in the dark would protect them from the law’s legal consequences. Board member of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and Georgetown University law professor Angela J. Campbell expresses that there’s no way that a site could be “100 percent sure” of a user’s age, but they should still be held responsible for protecting users’ safety.

In related U.K. legal news, a recent social media data leak exposed nearly 235 million Instagram, TikTok and YouTube profiles, Forbes reported. The massive social media data leak was allegedly due to an unsecured database.

What do you think of a possible TikTok ban? Let us know in the comment section below.

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