TikTok will re-verify the age of all its users in Italy, effectively banning profiles of minor users under the age of 13. The decision comes after an order given to the app by the country’s GDPD regulatory agency following the death of a 10-year-old girl who died of asphyxiation while participating in a “challenge” that went viral on the app.
This GDPR order on TikTok’s verification of minors was issued on January 22nd and will come into effect on February 01th, which is next week. From this date onwards, any Italian user who logs into TikTok will see an age verification pop-up where they will have to confirm that they are over 9 years old – or be banned from the app, as per the Italian authority’s order.
After the death of a 10-year-old girl, TikTok will require a minimum age to use the app in Italy (Image: Ascannio/Shutterstock)
This is not the first legal battle faced by TikTok on European soil: in early January, the ByteDance app was sued, ironically, by a 12-year-old girl, which flagged concerns about how the platform manages its users' data. Shortly thereafter, TikTok itself announced that it would overhaul its information collection practices in order to ensure the privacy of its community.
In this case, the situation began with the “Blackout Challenge”: the challenge consists, in very brief terms, of a user holding their breath – either voluntarily or by hanging themselves – until they pass out. It wasn’t TikTok that created the challenge (versions of it existed long before the app even existed), but due to its high virality, it ended up blaming the authorities. In one of the videos related to the challenge, the young woman mentioned at the beginning of this text died.
As a result, in addition to TikTok re-verifying the age of all users and banning anyone under 13, the Italian authorities will also monitor the app to ensure that the new premise is maintained. On TikTok’s side, the company not only complied with the measure, but also promised to implement artificial intelligence (AI) resources to create a robust age verification system.
There is a potential problem with this, however: the new system, which TikTok is expected to launch in Italy in a few days, only asks users to enter their birth year – without any additional verification. In other words, people under 13 could easily lie about this verification and still use the app.
nor the GDPD, nor TikTok have commented on the case or spoken out about this possibility.
Image: Daniel Constante (Shutterstock)