The Commission asks TikTok not to recommend content published by minors aged 16 and 17 to strangers.
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The European Commission preliminarily considers that TikTok's account settings expose minors' profiles and content too much. The platform should limit implicit visibility to child-accepted users, prevent public access from outside TikTok, and not distribute minors' content through the "For You" feed.
TikTok does not sufficiently protect minors' accounts as it allows the exposure of their profiles and content to people that children do not know, according to preliminary findings sent to the company by the European Commission. The authority believes that the possibility of having a public account, the recommendation of materials published by 16 and 17-year-old users, and the visibility of certain information from private accounts do not meet the high level of safety required for platforms accessible to minors under the Digital Services Act.
In short
1.Minors can set their TikTok account to public, which can allow anyone on the internet to see their content, including those who do not have an account on the platform. The Commission preliminarily considers that this exposure is too broad.
2.Materials published by 16 and 17-year-old users who choose a public account can be recommended to other users through the "For You" feed. The Commission demands that TikTok no longer recommend minors' content to unknown persons.
3.Not even private accounts completely hide minors. Their profiles can be found through the follower and followed accounts lists of other users, and the profile picture remains visible even to people without a TikTok account.
4.The findings do not yet represent a final decision. TikTok can consult the documents in the file and can respond in writing, and the Commission must consult the European Council for Digital Services before any potential non-compliance decision.
5.If the violation is confirmed, the Commission can impose a fine of up to 6% of the company's annual global turnover. The specific amount would depend on the nature, severity, duration, and potential repetition of the violation.
The settings analyzed by the Commission are those that control the visibility of an account, access to published materials, and how the platform distributes them to other users. These choices arise from the moment the account is created and can determine whether the child's profile remains within a restricted circle or becomes accessible to an audience that the minor does not know.
TikTok differentiates between users aged 13-15 and those aged 16-17. The accounts of the younger ones are private by default, while older teenagers can choose between a private and a public profile. The spokesperson for the Commission for digital affairs, Thomas Regnier, stated at the press briefing on July 24 that the existence of default settings represents a step in the right direction, but that protection must be effective, not just formally available.
Users aged 13-15 can change the initial setting and can turn their private account into a public one. The Commission believes that this possibility reduces the effectiveness of the protection offered implicitly to children in this age group. The assessment does not only concern the existence of a privacy option but also how easy it is for the minor to give it up and what happens after the setting is changed.
For users aged 16 and 17, the issue analyzed is broader. When they choose a public account, their materials can be viewed by any TikTok user and, in certain situations, by people accessing the content without being logged into the platform. The Commission believes that materials published by minors should not be accessible to a global audience outside the service.
The content of these teenagers can also be introduced into the "For You" recommendation system, the main feed through which TikTok automatically selects videos for each user. In this case, distribution does not depend on the existence of a prior connection between the child and the person receiving the recommendation.
A minor can publish a video for their followers, and the algorithm can present it to people with whom the child has not interacted and whom they have not accepted. The Commission preliminarily considers that TikTok should stop recommending minors' content to other users through this feed.
Visibility does not completely disappear even when the child uses a private account. The profile can be discovered through the follower and followed accounts lists displayed on other people's profiles. The minor's profile picture remains accessible to anyone, including internet users who do not have a TikTok account.
These elements can allow an unknown person to identify the account, see the child's picture, understand who they interact with, and try to establish contact. The Commission links this exposure to risks such as unwanted contacts, online harassment, predatory behavior, and the manipulation of minors for abuse.
The authority does not claim that every public account or discovered profile automatically produces such an outcome. The findings concern the risk created by the architecture of the service and TikTok's obligation to reduce the predictable exposure of minors before any concrete harm occurs.
Content published in adolescence can be copied, redistributed, or stored by other people even if the minor later deletes it from their own account. The Commission warns that materials can remain online and can continue to affect the user after they become an adult.
The Digital Services Act requires platforms accessible to minors to ensure a high level of confidentiality, safety, and security. The obligation is not limited to providing tools that the child or parent must activate separately. The design of the service and the default settings must reduce risks without transferring the entire responsibility onto the minor.
In its preliminary assessment, the Commission believes that a public account belonging to a minor should be configured so that materials are implicitly visible only to TikTok users that the child has accepted. Older teenagers could retain the option to share content with a wider audience within the platform, but this should not be viewable outside TikTok by a global audience.
The Commission has not requested at this stage a ban on all TikTok accounts for people under 18 years old nor the automatic closure of existing public accounts. The findings focus on the visibility of profiles, the distribution of content, and the protections that must be integrated into the configuration of minors' accounts.
The investigation included examining TikTok's interface, the company's data and internal documents, and discussions with representatives of law enforcement authorities and experts in child protection, child abuse, and neuropsychology. The Commission also used its guidelines on child protection to assess whether the settings provide the level of safety required by European legislation.
The Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for technological sovereignty, security, and democracy, Henna Virkkunen, stated: "Minors deserve a safe experience from the moment they go online. The Digital Services Act requires platforms to integrate child protection into the design of their services and holds them accountable when they do not do so. A high level of protection should not be an option that the user has to activate; it should be the default setting."
TikTok now has the right to examine the documents on which the findings are based and to submit a written response. The company can contest the Commission's interpretation, present additional evidence, or propose changes to the service. The preliminary findings do not establish that TikTok has definitively violated the Digital Services Act.
The European Council for Digital Services, made up of national coordinators responsible for enforcing the regulation, will be consulted in parallel. After analyzing TikTok's response and the Council's opinion, the Commission can close this part of the investigation, accept any commitments, or adopt a decision confirming non-compliance.
A final decision could lead to a fine of up to 6% of the provider's annual global turnover. The cap does not represent an automatically established penalty, and the amount should be calculated proportionally to the nature, severity, duration, and repetition of the confirmed violation.
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