European Commission preliminary finds TikTok in breach of Digital Services Act for failing to ensure safe accounts for minors.

The European Commission has sent preliminary findings to TikTok indicating that its account settings for minors fail to meet the mandatory privacy, safety, and security standards required under the Digital Services Act (DSA).

The Commission’s findings highlight that current platform settings expose children to unwanted contact, cyberbullying, and predatory behavior by making their accounts and published content accessible too broadly—including to non-registered users outside the platform.

Privacy Risks and Public Exposure

Under current platform settings, minors can set their TikTok profiles to ‘public’, enabling anyone on or off the platform to view their content. Additionally, content published by older minors aged 16 to 17 is eligible for recommendation to the general user base through the ‘For You Feed’.

The Commission noted that even when minors opt for private accounts, their profiles remain discoverable through other users’ ‘following’ and ‘followers’ lists, while profile pictures remain globally visible to anyone, including non-TikTok account holders.

Account settings play a critical role in ensuring minor safety online because they determine who can view content and initiate direct contact. Under the DSA, platforms accessible to children must enforce default privacy and security safeguards. The Commission preliminarily concluded that TikTok’s current framework fails to meet these obligations.

Recommended Safety Adjustments

In line with its Guidelines on the Protection of Minors, the Commission recommended that TikTok implement several corrective changes:

• Restrict Content Visibility: Default settings for minor accounts should restrict content visibility exclusively to approved followers.
• Block Global Access: While older minors may choose to share content with a broader audience on TikTok, their posts should under no circumstances be accessible to a global audience outside the platform.
• Limit Feed Recommendations: TikTok must refrain from recommending content created by minors to the broader user base via the ‘For You Feed’.

Next Steps and Potential Penalties

The preliminary findings do not prejudge the final outcome of the investigation. TikTok now has the opportunity to review the Commission’s investigation files and submit a formal written response, alongside consultations with the European Board for Digital Services.

If the non-compliance views are confirmed in a final decision, the European Commission may issue financial penalties proportionate to the nature, gravity, and duration of the infringement, capped at up to 6% of TikTok’s total global annual turnover.

Background of the Investigation

The findings form part of formal proceedings initiated against TikTok on February 19, 2024, under the Digital Services Act. The ongoing investigation also covers the ‘rabbit hole effect’ of TikTok’s recommender algorithms and risks associated with age misrepresentation on the platform.