TikTok fined £12.7M by the UK ICO over children's data
£12.7M
≈ $15.9M at the time
Information Commissioner's Office
United Kingdom · 2023
Status: Final
What happened
The UK Information Commissioner found that TikTok processed the data of children under 13 without parental consent, did not carry out adequate checks to identify and remove underage users, and did not clearly explain how it collected, used and shared data. The ICO estimated that up to 1.4 million UK children under 13 used the platform in 2020, although its own rules barred them.
How it affected users
Children too young to sign up had their data used without a parent's consent. Users, especially children, were unlikely to understand how their data was used and make informed choices about the app.
Status timeline
Apr 4, 2023
Penalty notice of £12.7M issued to TikTok Information Technologies UK Limited and TikTok Inc for breaches between May 2018 and July 2020.
Sep 24, 2026
After the Upper Tribunal rejected its argument in August 2026, TikTok withdrew its appeal and agreed to pay, making the penalty notice final.
Sources
- ICO: TikTok withdraws two appeals in children's privacy action and accepts £12.7m fineregulator
- ICO newsroom: ICO fines TikTok £12.7 million for misusing children's dataregulator
Last verified 2026-10-15. Spotted an error? Report a correction.
Cite this entry
Deepak Gupta, "TikTok fined £12.7M by the UK ICO over children's data," Tech Fines Directory, guptadeepak.com, 2023-04-04. https://guptadeepak.com/tech-fines/violation/tiktok-uk-children-2023/