EU to TikTok: kids' safety isn't a settings menu
What happened
The European Commission issued preliminary findings under the Digital Services Act saying TikTok's minor-protection settings are too easy to ignore. Teens' "public" accounts still get recommended in the For You feed, and even "private" profiles leak photos and follower lists to anyone browsing.
Why this matters
This isn't a slap on the wrist — non-compliance under the DSA can trigger fines up to 6% of TikTok's global annual revenue, real money even for a platform ByteDance's size. It also signals the EU is done treating "safety by default" as a nice-to-have feature for any platform with a teen user base.
The slightly cynical read
TikTok will probably announce some hastily shipped toggle updates within weeks, call it "industry-leading child safety," and quietly keep the discoverability loopholes that don't show up in a press release. Compliance theater is cheaper than actually rearchitecting the recommendation engine.
What to watch next
Watch whether TikTok makes real structural changes to its For You algorithm and account defaults, or just patches the specific issues the Commission flagged. Also worth tracking: whether this preliminary finding becomes a template the EU applies to Instagram, Snapchat, and other teen-heavy platforms next.