EU charges TikTok with failing to protect children’s privacy under the DSA
On 24 July, the European Commission issued preliminary findings that the TikTok platform breached the Digital Services Act by leaving minors’ accounts open to adults, the latest escalation in a probe that has shadowed the app since 2024.
The finding is narrow but pointed. Investigators concluded that TikTok’s default settings failed to keep children’s profiles private in practice, an omission the Commission treats as a systemic risk rather than a design quirk, and one that sits inside a wider EU drive on online child safety that now stretches across the biggest platforms.
According to the Commission, users aged 13 to 15 could switch their accounts from private to public with little friction, while the accounts of 16- and 17-year-olds remained visible to anyone online, including people without a TikTok login.
That exposure, regulators said, created avenues for cyberbullying, unwanted contact, and predatory behaviour.
“Children’s content must never be visible to...
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