TikTok drops appeal and will pay £12.7m fine after UK regulator found it failed to keep under-13s off the app

# What happened TikTok has dropped its appeal against a ruling by the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) and will pay a £12.7m fine. The ICO issued the fine in 2023 after finding that TikTok did not do enough to prevent children under 13 using the service and failed to handle their personal data properly. TikTok says it disagrees with the ruling but chose to pay because the case relates to a period between 2018 and 2020, after which it implemented a range of youth-safety measures.

# What the ICO found The ICO's findings focused on three areas:

• Age verification: TikTok has a minimum user age of 13, but the ICO said failure to enforce that limit resulted in as many as 1.75 million UK children under 13 using the service in 2020.
• Removal of underage accounts: When made aware of under-13 users, the ICO concluded TikTok did "very little, if anything" to remove those accounts.
• TikTok did not give sufficient information about how children's data was collected and used, and failed to obtain required parental consent.

Emily Keaney, the ICO's deputy commissioner, said the action shows the importance of having the right protections in place to prevent access by children who are not old enough to use services.

# Related investigatory step: algorithm transparency TikTok has also withdrawn an appeal against an ICO request for information about how its algorithm processes teenagers' personal data and how it serves potentially harmful content. The ICO said it will resume that investigation now that the appeal has been dropped.

# Timeline and context

• The breaches the ICO fined relate to 2018–2020.

• At the time the fine was issued, then information commissioner John Edwards said TikTok was "not doing enough" across multiple fronts, including detection and removal of under-13 users.

# Wider regulatory environment The UK is introducing a new under-16 age limit for social media platforms that comes into force next year. Ofcom has said the tech industry must take more action to enforce age limits as that deadline approaches. The Guardian's context notes that other jurisdictions are also moving on child safety: Australia introduced a social media ban for under-16s in December and its eSafety commissioner reported that many under-16s kept or recreated accounts despite age-gating.

# Related enforcement and settlements Separate enforcement and legal actions against TikTok have continued elsewhere. For example, Alabama reached a settlement with TikTok for at least US$100m in 2026 requiring new usage limits and stricter age checks for teen accounts. These parallel actions indicate regulators in multiple countries are seeking changes to age verification, usage limits for younger users, and transparency about algorithmic recommendations.

# What this means for users and platforms For parents and guardians: regulators are increasingly focused on age verification and transparency about how platforms use young people's data. For platforms: the case signals continued regulatory appetite to enforce data protection rules and to require information about how recommendation systems affect young users. For policymakers: the UK's upcoming under-16 limit and similar moves abroad will raise the practical challenge of enforcing age gates and preventing account circumvention.

# Bottom line TikTok will pay the ICO's £12.7m fine rather than continue a legal challenge, while also withdrawing an appeal that had stalled an ICO inquiry into how the app's algorithm treats teenagers. The decision shifts the regulatory process forward at a time when governments are tightening age-related controls on social media.