This is the kind of news that makes your stomach hurt. The Federal Trade Commission announced that a very popular kids’ app TikTok has been illegally collecting information from your children. Think your kid was or is safe because of their young age? Think again. TikTok which was formerly the Musical.ly App has been collecting information on users under the age of 13 years old. This violates the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). FTC issued a statement and Chairman Joe Simons said,

“The operators of Musical.ly—now known as TikTok—knew many children were using the app but they still failed to seek parental consent before collecting names, email addresses, and other personal information from users under the age of 13,”

According to the FTC’s report, thousands of complaints had been filed from parents of young children. Unfortunately, the app neglected to ask for parental consent and they neglected to notify parents that they were collecting their children's information. Not only did the app collect your children's information, they continued to store it knowing they shouldn't have. They ignored thousands of concerned parents. This is such a  scary thought for parents. Your child's information and their location was out there and stored away. Since TikTok violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) the TikTok app has to pay a 5.7 million fine. This is the largest child privacy-related penalty in history. Simons went on to say in a statement,

“This record penalty should be a reminder to all online services and websites that target children: We take enforcement of COPPA very seriously, and we will not tolerate companies that flagrantly ignore the law.”

Parents, do your kids have the TikTok App? Even though the app has claimed they will change the way they run things do you still trust the app? Let us know in the comments below.

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