EU Says TikTok Minors’ Accounts Breach DSA—a 6% Turnover Fine Now Looms
The European Commission preliminarily finds TikTok's minor accounts breach the DSA, exposing children publicly—fines could reach 6% of global turnover.
In Brief
- The European Commission’s preliminary findings say TikTok minors’ accounts breach the DSA because children can go public, appear in For You recommendations at 16-17, and stay discoverable even with private accounts
- Brussels wants minors’ content visible by default only to approved followers, kept out of the For You Feed, and never exposed to a global audience outside the platform
- A confirmed non-compliance decision could cost TikTok up to 6% of global annual turnover, on top of prior Irish GDPR fines of €345 million and €530 million
The European Commission told TikTok on Friday that its accounts for minors preliminarily breach the Digital Services Act, finding that children’s content can be exposed to anyone on the internet—including people without a TikTok account, according to the Commission’s press release (IP/26/1679).
The objections are structural: minors can set accounts to public, and content posted by 16- and 17-year-olds can be recommended to any user through the For You Feed. “Even when minors choose private accounts, their accounts can be easily found through the ‘following’ and ‘followers’ lists of other users, and their profile photos remain accessible to anyone, including users without a TikTok account. TikTok’s settings continue to expose them to risks – including unwanted contact, cyberbullying, or predatory behaviour,” the Commission wrote.
“Minors deserve a safe experience from the moment they go online,” said Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy. “A high level of protection should not be an opt-in; it should be the default. This is our responsibility for current and future generations of European children.”
What the TikTok DSA findings demand
The Commission’s preliminary remedy is a rebuild of minors’ defaults: content visible only to users the minor has accepted, excluded from For You recommendations, and never accessible to a global audience outside the platform. The findings rest on analysis of TikTok’s interface, internal data and documents, and interviews with law enforcement officers and specialists in child protection and neuro-psychology.
TikTok can now examine the case file and respond in writing, and the European Board for Digital Services will be consulted. If the findings are confirmed, a non-compliance decision could carry a fine of up to 6% of TikTok’s global annual turnover, per the Commission—a cap, not a forecast, with the actual amount set by the breach’s nature, gravity, recurrence, and duration.
The child-safety strand is one front in a long campaign: formal DSA proceedings opened on February 19, 2024, and this is the second adverse preliminary finding this year after February’s on addictive design—an assessment TikTok called “categorically false,” per Euronews. Investigations into the ‘rabbit hole effect’ and age misrepresentation remain open, part of the enforcement wave Frontierbeat covered when the EU fined Google under the Digital Markets Act.
The regulatory bill keeps growing
TikTok already knows what European enforcement costs. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission fined it €345 million in 2023 over children’s account settings under GDPR, and €530 million this cycle over EU user data transfers to China—a penalty upheld by Ireland’s High Court this year, per Euronews.
The pressure is multiplying across jurisdictions: the UK’s Ofcom launched its own child-safety investigation into TikTok last week, with updates expected in October, The Verge reported.
The Commission stresses the findings do not prejudge the outcome. But the direction of European platform law is explicit in Virkkunen’s phrasing: protection by default, not by settings menu—and the DSA gives Brussels the leverage to price non-compliance in percentages of global revenue.
FAQ
What did the EU preliminarily find against TikTok?
That minors’ accounts fail DSA safety standards—children can set accounts public, 16- and 17-year-olds’ content reaches the For You Feed, and even private minors’ accounts remain discoverable with profile photos visible to anyone.
What changes does the Commission want?
Minors’ content visible by default only to approved followers, excluded from For You recommendations, and never accessible to a global audience outside the platform.
How large could the fine be?
Up to 6% of TikTok’s global annual turnover if a non-compliance decision is confirmed, with the actual amount depending on the breach’s nature, gravity, recurrence and duration.
