By: Alexandra Marlowe
A 2019 national survey, conducted by Common Sense Media, found that kids, ages 8-12, spend four hours and forty-four minutes per day on entertainment screen use, including social media, gaming, and TV/videos. The greatest change seen in kid’s media habits is their dramatic increase in online video watching, especially from sites like YouTube. In 2019, 56% of kids ages 8-12 said they watch online videos “every day,” compared to 24% in 2015. TikTok, a short-form mobile video app, quickly took advantage of this interest surge.
TikTok is a Chinese-owned video-sharing app that allows users to shoot, edit, share and view short videos that include music, various filters, and special effects. According to their website, TikTok’s mission is “to inspire creativity and bring joy…by enabling our users to connect and express themselves authentically.” According to CNBC, TikTok boasts 100 million monthly active users in the United States, and 50 million daily active users in the United States. The app has sparked an interest in kids, despite requiring users to be 13 years or older. While this requirement exists, it is still very easy for kids to skirt the age restriction and set up an account by creating a fake birth date. Parental sites, aware of this obvious loophole, have provided guidance for parents who are cognizant of their child’s use of the app. These sites recommend using restricted mode options, blocking users, and utilizing screen time management features. However, as many children’s privacy advocacy groups have pointed out, these measures are simply not enough. TikTok continues to collect data from users under 13 years old, without parental consent.
Just this past year, the Federal Trade Commission (“F.T.C.”) announced a $5.7 million settlement agreement with TikTok for violating the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”). The Act requires online services to obtain parental permission before collecting personal data from users under 13 years old. During an investigation into the accusations against TikTok, the F.T.C. discovered that a large percentage of the users on the app were under the age of 13 years old. Additionally, the app was collecting sensitive information from these users without notifying the parents or obtaining their permission. The investigators also uncovered that a default setting made users’ information public, which meant that a child’s user name, picture, and videos could be seen by others unless manually changed by the user. As a result of the agreement, TikTok announced that they were working with the F.T.C. to implement “changes to accommodate younger U.S. users in a limited, separate app experience that introduces additional safety and privacy protections designed specifically for [that] audience.”
According to a coalition of 20 children advocacy groups, despite their previous agreement with the F.T.C., TikTok is still collecting personal data from children under 13 years old without parental permission. In early September of 2020, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (“CCFC”) and the Center for Digital Democracy wrote separate letters to potential buyers of the U.S. operations of TikTok, such as Microsoft, Walmart, and Oracle, all of which have shown interest in purchasing the U.S. operations of TikTok, urging them to “immediately stop collecting and processing data from any account with a user flagged as or believed to be under 13 years old.” The advocates advanced the need for the new buyers to only restore accounts that can be “affirmatively verified” as belonging to users over 13 years of age and delete all other accounts. Further, the potential buyer should “revamp” the process for seeking parental consent to comply with the federal COPPA. The Executive Director of CCFC, Josh Golin, shared a statement articulating that “[w]hoever purchases TikTok will have access to a treasure trove of ill-gotten, sensitive children’s data…Any new owner must demonstrate their commitment to protecting young people’s privacy by immediately deleting any data that was illegally obtained from children under 13.”
TikTok’s clear disregard for the law presents a dangerous issue that should be taken seriously by the new owner(s). The historical approach taken by TikTok exposes children to inappropriate content, potential predators, cyberbullying, and a host of privacy concerns. While the guidance for parents provided by various parental websites and outlined on TikTok’s website is very informative and helpful, not all parents are apprised of their children’s use of the app. Moreover, even if they are aware, many parents are faced with a multiplicity of demands, which may mean pushing the implementation of manual child restrictions on their children’s TikTok app to the bottom of their to-do list. This lack of awareness or knowledge further illustrates the desperate need for more encompassing privacy protections and explicit actions taken by the new owner(s). The issue has become even more pressing since Americans were required to shelter at home as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is evident by the 11 million downloads by new users in March of 2020, which was twice the total new downloads in December of 2019.
As was emphasized in the advocacy letter, the future owner(s) should do the following to demonstrate their commitment to protecting children: make clear their desire to comply with COPPA by taking steps to work with the F.T.C., delete all illegally obtained data, remove users that have been flagged as or believed to be under 13, and take immediate action to more proactively obtain parental consent.
Student Bio: Alexandra Marlowe is a second-year law student at Suffolk University Law School and a Staff Member on the Journal of High Technology Law. She is interested in pursuing a career in employment law. Alexandra holds a B.A. in Political Science and minors in Psychology and Philosophy from Wheaton College (MA).
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog are the views of the author alone and do not represent the views of JHTL or Suffolk University Law School.
