Secretary of State for Consumer Protection and Privacy, Eva De Bleeker and Mathieu Michel, want to better protect minors on Tiktok.
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Tiktok is, along with Instagram, the most popular social media channel for minors between the ages of 12 and 16. Various complaints and investigations have shown that the protection of users, and of minors in particular, leaves something to be desired in terms of consumer law compliance and data protection.
At the European level, the Irish Data Protection Authority is already investigating how Tiktok manages and processes children’s data.
The Belgian Data Protection Authority has joined this investigation. State Secretaries De Bleeker and Michel ask that the Data Protection Authority study what could also be done at a national level. With this they want to avoid the risk of a ‘bottleneck’ in Ireland as much as possible. In this way, our Data Protection Authority would be in line with similar investigations by the Dutch and Italian authorities.
basic right
‘Children and young people must be aware of what can happen to their data. It cannot be that a large company like Tiktok, with mainly young people as customers, hides behind ambiguities. Correct and transparent information is a basic consumer right,’ said State Secretary De Bleeker.
‘I want for our citizens, and our young people in particular, a digital environment with the same level of protection as in the real world. That is why we are addressing this question to the Data Protection Authority’, State Secretary Michel concludes.
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