Italy’s regulator asks TikTok for further action on users aged under 13

MILAN: Italy’s data protection regulator said on Wednesday it had asked video-sharing app TikTok to strengthen measures to prevent young users from accessing the platform after the group removed more than 500,000 users under the age of 13 in almost three months.

Early in February TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, agreed with Italian authorities to block all users who gave their age as under 13, among other measures, after the death of a 10-year-old girl was blamed on a breath-holding social media challenge.

“The measures adopted have brought significant, but not yet sufficient, results,” the regulator said in a statement.