ABSTRACT
During the Covid-19 pandemic, social media platforms such as Youtube Kids and TikTok perceived a growing audience, as their videos became part of child and preteen culture. However, the children’s lack of digital literacy limits their understanding of privacy-related risks on these platforms. Besides, the misleading design of platforms services (e.g. features that favour advertising partners and retain young audiences in the ecosystem) together with limited enforcement of policies and terms of use by tech companies affect children’s protection. This paper presents 18 legal requirements (LR) for children’s privacy and protection by platforms. We illustrate their application by examining TikTok, the most popular social media platform among children. We collected TikTok’s documentation and evidence from relevant media and IT news websites to classify the compliance of its practices with these LR, which can guide platforms in implementing children’s privacy and data protection. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.