Overview
- The European Commission has issued preliminary findings that TikTok’s account defaults and discoverability features do not meet the Digital Services Act’s requirement that strong protections for minors be built in by default.
- Regulators said children can set accounts public and that even private profiles can be located through other users’ followers and following lists, which can expose minors to predators and cyberbullying.
- The Commission recommended changes so minors’ content is visible only to users the child accepts and cited limits needed on direct messaging and algorithmic exposure.
- TikTok said it will review the Commission’s documents and noted teen accounts already have preset privacy controls, private defaults for under‑18s, and messaging and feed restrictions.
- This is the fourth DSA-related action against TikTok in two years and comes after past concessions in other EU probes, signaling tougher enforcement that could force product-design changes across large platforms.