U.K. ICO Investigates TikTok, Reddit, and Imgur Over Children's Data Protection Practices
Mar 03, 2025
Data Privacy / Compliance
The U.K.'s Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has opened an investigation into online platforms TikTok, Reddit, and Imgur to assess the steps they are taking to protect children between the ages of 13 and 17 in the country. To that end, the watchdog said it's probing how the ByteDance-owned video-sharing service uses the personal data of children in the age range to surface recommendations and deliver suggested content to their feeds. "This is in light of growing concerns about social media and video sharing platforms using data generated by children's online activity in their recommender systems, which could lead to young people being served inappropriate or harmful content," the ICO said . Separately, the data protection regulator said it's also looking into Imgur and Reddit to see how they are using children's information and the measures they are taking to assess the age of their users and tailor content based on that criteria. The ICO ...