A 12-year-old girl in the UK has filed a lawsuit against the video-sharing app TikTok, claiming that the company uses children’s data illegally.
According to a BBC report, a court ruled that the girl could hide her identity if the case went ahead.
The 12-year-old’s move is being supported by Anne Livingfield, the UK’s children’s commissioner, who believes TikTok has broken UK and European data protection laws.
TuckTuck says it has “extremely strict policies” to protect children and does not allow children under the age of 13 to join the app.
Anne Longfield believes the case will protect people under the age of 16 who use tick-tock in England and possibly elsewhere.
He believes the TikTok app collects children’s data and uses it in its video suggestion algorithms to gain user attention and advertising revenue.
The commissioner told the London High Court via video link that he hoped the case would issue an order forcing the company to delete children’s data and set an example.
However, the initial hearing focused on whether a 12-year-old girl could make a claim without revealing her identity.
Justice Warbay ruled that if the girl’s identity was revealed, she would face a cyber threat from other children and TikTok users.
He said the girl could face backlash from social media influencers who would feel her income was in jeopardy.
It is believed that Longfield is waiting for the data protection case against Google to end before prosecuting TikTok.
In 2019, the US Federal Trade Commission fined TikTok 57 5.7 million for child data related matters.
In 2020, South Korea was fined for the same reasons.
In a statement, TikTok said, “Privacy and protection are TuckTuck’s top priorities and we have very strict policies to protect all users, especially young ones.”
The terms and conditions of the TikTok app state that the service is not for people under the age of 13 and all users are asked their age before signing up.
In addition, accounts used by users under the age of 13 are removed, according to TikTok.