TikTok fined £12.7M for UK data protection law breaches – TikTok | Hacker News Reader

TikTok fined £12.7M for UK data protection law breaches – TikTok

theguardian.com

I just feel like a fine of this size really isn’t a deterrent. The amount of revenue generated by this many users should be taken into account, and the fine should be at least greater than that amount of revenue.

TimTok’s turneover was something like $4.6 billion last year.

So a fine of £12 million is about 0.3%

to put it in context, that’s like someone making £100,000 a year getting a £300 fine.

But by doing what they did they probably made a bunch of money so maybe it didn’t even affect them at all…

A very, very rough, back of envelope calculation makes that in the order of 1.5 times the revenue per child.

In 2022 (not 2000 when the fine applies to) they had approximately 1.5B users and $11.6B revenue which averages about $7.7 revenue per user (and less profit). The fine was £12.70 ($15) per user under the age of 13.

Obviously the revenue of an under 13 UK child might be more or less than the average.

I can't see how it is possible to keep people out based on age unless the internet requires age verification based on something from the real world. Is it possible? If not this looks like a money grab or a way to hurt TikTok for whatever reason.

UK Information Commissioner’s Office press release:

https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/media-centre/news-and-blogs...

> More than one million UK children under 13 estimated by the ICO to be on TikTok in 2020, contrary to its terms of service.

> TikTok has been fined £12.7m for multiple breaches of data protection law...The failure to enforce age limits led to “up to 1.4 million UK children” under the age of 13 using the platform as of 2020, the ICO estimated…

So less than 10 pounds per child? That’ll teach ‘em.

I don't understand why reckless parents who let small kids use internet without supervision are not fined. Also, why mobile providers who do not have plans with restrictions of data usage are not fined.

Because the government wants to give itself the responsibility of raising the children and controlling society at large. Fining the parents would be like saying that parents are in charge of their children and that goes against the interests of the government.

It seems like business in general doesn't want to do anything for child safety. For example, imagine if the school asks that parents buy a laptop for their children. But ordinary laptops do not have "school mode" which would allow children only use it for studying and not for visiting inappropriate sites or use messengers.

Or, imagine if parents want to buy a smartphone so that the child can always call them. But again, even on iPhones you cannot allow children to use a messenger but restrict to whom children can talk to.

Or take websites. Currently as far as I am aware no web sites provide HTTP headers with information about age restrictions.

To summarize:

- laptop and smartphone manufacturers do not want to invest in creating safe environment for children

- website and app owners do not want to invest into this either

Any idea what other companies like Instagram or Youtube are doing which TikTok wasn't doing to identify children? The comments in article are both hyperbolic and vague.

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