Selma Aksunger
02 June 2021•Update: 02 June 2021
AMSTERDAM
An Amsterdam-based market research foundation on Wednesday sued popular short-video social media platform TikTok for “negligence in ensuring the safety and privacy of children.”
In a statement, Market Information Research Foundation (SOMI) said it filed a €1.4 billion ($1.7 billion) claim for damages, which amounts to, on behalf of 64,000 parents.
The foundation claimed that TikTok does not properly obtain permission for collecting the data of child users, adding that the social media platform is doing too little to protect children.
Furthermore, SOMI alleged that TikTok collects much more data than necessary.
TikTok is now facing a claim for damages in an Amsterdam court for allegedly violating various European Union data protection laws.
Cor Wijtvliet, one of the founders of SOMI, said that the association and the relevant EU institutions have sent letters of complaints to TikTok, but no substantive results were achieved.
Speaking to local media in the Netherlands, an official from the social media platform, said that personal data security is among the priorities of the institution.
TikTok provides parents with access to their children's accounts so that they can control the accounts of their children under the age of 16 for this purpose, the official added.
TikTok allows only children over the age of 13 to become the member of the platform with the consent of their parents.
