A group of the US House of Representatives' Democratic members has recently penned a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, urging the latter to look into the TikTok's alleged “blatant disregard” of a consent decree related to children’s privacy.
According to Reuters, the lawmakers' move comes after the Center for Digital Democracy and Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood made allegations that TikTok didn't take down videos made by children under the age of 13 despite agreeing to do so as per the last year's consent agreement with FTC.
"The blatant disregard for the consent decree could encourage other websites to fail to adhere to settlements made with your agency, thereby weakening protections for all Americans," the letter said.
The lawmakers argued that TikTok's apparent non-compliance with the aforementioned consent decree puts it in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, even as the use of the video networking service grows amid the COVID-19-related lockdown measures which have lead to people staying indoors more.
TikTok spokeswoman Hilary McQuaide, however, said that they take "the issue of safety seriously for all our users, and we continue to further strengthen our safeguards and introduce new measures to protect young people on the app."
