{
  "id": 9551874,
  "title": "Tiktok to pay £12.7m UK child privacy fine despite disputing watchdog findings",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/24/tiktok-to-pay-12-7m-uk-child-privacy-fine-despite-disputing-watchdog",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-09-24T11:55:32.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "City AM",
    "slug": "city-am",
    "url": "https://www.cityam.com/tiktok-to-pay-12-7m-uk-child-privacy-fine-despite-disputing-watchdog-findings/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "TikTok faces a £12.7 million fine from the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for mishandling children's data, despite disputing the watchdog's findings. The social media giant had previously lodged a three-year legal challenge against the £12.7 million penalty imposed in 2023. However, it has now abandoned its appeal, making the fine final. This decision comes after the Upper Tribunal rejected TikTok's argument that personal data processing for artistic purposes warranted prior court approval.\n\nA TikTok spokesperson stated that while they disagree with the ICO's 2023 decision, they emphasize that its findings pertain to a historical period, May 2018 - July 2020, and do not reflect the various youth safety measures and policies implemented since then. The regulator estimated that up to 1.75 million British children under 13 used TikTok in 2020, despite platform rules prohibiting such accounts.\n\nThe ICO found TikTok to have failed in several areas, including conducting adequate checks to identify and remove underage users or obtain parental consent, despite knowing children under 13 were accessing the service. Additionally, the company did not clearly explain how user data was collected, used, and shared, per the ICO's findings.\n\nTikTok's algorithm investigation has also been restarted by the ICO due to concerns over teenagers being exposed to inappropriate content through the platform's 'recommender' systems. The regulator can now pursue an investigation into how TikTok uses data from users aged 13 to 17 through its recommender systems, which profile users' activity to determine the videos and content they see.",
  "summary": "Tiktok will pay a £12.7m UK fine over its handling of children’s data after abandoning a three-year legal challenge, despite maintaining that it disagrees with the privacy watchdog’s findings. The social media giant has withdrawn its appeal against a penalty imposed by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in 2023, making the fine final. A Tiktok [...]",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}