Italy: TikTok must block users after girl’s death

After a tragic incident involving a 10-year-old girl, the Italian ‘privacy watchdog’ has issued a decision that TikTok must block all users whose age it has not verified. The blockade will last at least until February 15, but may provide a permanent measure for the platform.

Age control

A 10-year-old girl recently died of suffocation, presumably as a result of the dangerous Blackout Challenge on TikTok. Participants in such ‘challenges’ are asked to suffocate themselves for as long as possible and post a video of it on the platform. While these kinds of challenges are dangerous for all users, this is more the case for underage participants, who cannot foresee the consequences of such actions.

It is striking that TikTok says it prohibits young people under 13 from registering on the platform – at the same time it does not perform any age checks, so users can pretend to be an older person. Hence, after the incident with the ten-year-old girl from Palermo, the Italian privacy watchdog decided that TikTok should block users whose age it cannot verify.

TikTok block

TikTok must block these users until at least February 15; until then, users cannot post videos or comment on existing videos. It is still unknown what measures the Chinese TikTok will have to implement after 15 February: it is also not known how many accounts there are on TikTok whose age has not been verified. The measure follows an earlier warning from the Italian privacy watchdog to TikTok.

In a response, TikTok said that ‘privacy and security’ are top priorities for the platform, and that it is working to “strengthen its policies, processes and technologies” to protect the community on TikTok. Previously, it made the decision to impose restrictions that affect TikTok users between the ages of 13 and 15.

Police investigation

In Italy, it is currently being investigated whether the ten-year-old girl has been encouraged to participate in the Blackout Challenge, Reuters reports. Furthermore, the privacy watchdog has contacted Ireland – TikTok has its European headquarters there.

It is not yet known to what extent this incident will affect the way in which it verifies users across Europe. Do you think TikTok should implement stricter verification actions? Let us know in the comments.