Transcript for Video app fined for collecting data on kids
Now parents, pay attention. An extremely popular video app called musical.ly now called tiktok agreed to pay millions in fines for illegally collecting person ago information from children and T.J. Holmes has that story. Reporter: Good morning to you, George and the headline, yes, one of them is that record fine for this app. The headline for parents is that the fine is for possibly collecting your child’s personal information and then making it public including your child’s location. Now, the app says they corrected the problem this morning but parents, this does not mean you can now rest easy. One of the hottest video apps in the world. ?????? that boasts users like Selena Gomez now hit with one of the largest fines ever for illegally collecting and exposing young kids’ personal information. ??? Welcome to my house ??? Reporter: Musical.ly now known as tiktok is accused of violating users’ privacy. The app lets users create and share their own karaoke-style videos and was downlooted more than 200 millions times with superstars like Ariana grande, Jason derulo and Justin Bieber jumping on the bandwagon. ??? Never let me down ??? Reporter: But it’s wildly popular mainly among kids. The federal trade commission handed app operators a record fine of $5.7 million, claiming the app violated the children’s online privacy protection act. Kids under 13 provided their names, email addresses and profile pictures without their parents’ consent. The ftc saying in a statement this record penalty should be a reminder to all online services and websites that target children, we will not tolerate companies that flagrantly ignore the law. So how have they corrected the problem? They do ask for age verification. You’re supposed to be 13 to use it. They have now said they will take down all videos made by kids before that were under the age of 1. Here’s the — go ahead. Age verification. All you have to do is say you’re — You cannot correct and verify that part. Instagram, Facebook, all have age limits. Kids certainly use those. What are you supposed to do? Supposed to be a good parent. Can you not depend on the ftc or some app. Have you to be engaged in what your child is doing on that phone because all a kid has to lie. I put in a fake age and went through, no problem. So, parents this, is on you. They’re doing what they’re supposed to do Elie but this is a parenting issue. That lie so easy on the apps. Put it right in — This has been a public service announcement. That never-before-seen video
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