Watchdog of the UK wants to know how Tiktok, Reddit and Imgur is in charge of children’s personal information

The UK Commissioner’s Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has announced that it has launched investigations on how Tiktok, Reddit and Imgur is trying to protect their child users.

Social media platforms stipulate that users must be at least 13 years old to create an account, a limit that informs the practices of companies that need to consider what kind of content they serve for adolescents.

The ICO announcement called Tiktok, Reddit and Imgur as targets for three investigations, and the Guardian in the UK is trying to establish, at least for now, if the data protection legislation has been violated.

Social media companies, be careful!

The purpose of the investigations is clear. For Tiktok, ICO wants to know how the company makes recommendations.

“Our investigation into Tiktok takes into account how the platform uses personal information of 13-17 years old in the UK to make recommendations and to provide suggested content for their flows,” Io said in a statement.

“This is in the light of increasing concerns about social media and video sharing platforms using data generated by the online activity of children in their recommendation systems, which could lead to the fact that young people are served inappropriately or harmful content.”

Imgur and Reddit are also social platforms and are investigated for similar reasons. In their case, authorities want to know how platforms use the personal information of children in the UK and how to check age.

For example, these platforms need dedicated tools to help them estimate or check the age of a child, which allows services to be adapted to their needs or access to be restricted.

“In announcing these investigations, we make the public what actions are currently taking place to ensure our children’s information rights.

Ico does not confuse

Watchdog in the UK has launched similar investigations in the past, which has led directly changes in how some platforms have addressed these issues.

For example, X has ceased to fulfill commercials to users under the age of 18, eliminated the ability to opt in geolocalization exchange and more.

Other examples include served, which has stopped automatically, including information about geolocalization in children’s profiles and Bereal, which has ceased to allow children to post their precise online location.