Brussels says TikTok isn't keeping minors safe: what it means for your child, and for any site with users

One teenager, one public account, half the world watching

If you have a teenager on TikTok, the odds are good that their profile is public. Meaning: anyone can see what they post, follower or not, TikTok account or no TikTok account. And not because the kid dug into some obscure setting — the app hands it to them in two taps.

On 24 July 2026, the European Commission told TikTok that this isn't good enough.

What actually happened

The Commission sent TikTok what are called preliminary findings: the formal step where Brussels tells a company what it stands accused of, before deciding anything binding. The conclusion is that minors' accounts on TikTok do not meet the safety standards required under the Digital Services Act — the DSA, Europe's rulebook for large online platforms.

The specific problem it flags: minors can set their account to "public", making their content visible to anyone, including people with no account on the platform at all.

What Brussels is demanding is a change to the default setting: a minor's content should be visible only to users the minor has accepted, and that content should not be pushed to anyone by the recommendation algorithm.

What hasn't happened yet (and shouldn't be muddled)

This is where a lot of headlines get carried away, so here's the fine print:

• These are preliminary findings, not a verdict. TikTok has the right to respond and defend itself.
• The Commission has not imposed any fine, nor announced a figure. The statement mentions no penalty at all.
• It's true that the DSA allows fines of up to 6% of a company's global annual turnover — that sits in the law's own enforcement framework — but only if the breach is confirmed at the end of the procedure. As of today, it isn't.

Put differently: it's a serious warning with potentially enormous consequences, but it's the start of the process, not the end.

Does this affect you?

Depends which of these two groups you're in. Probably both.

If you're a parent. The important part isn't the fine — it's that this confirms something you may have assumed worked the other way round. A social network's default settings aren't designed to protect your child; they're designed to push your child's content to as many people as possible. That is precisely the argument the Commission has opened.

If you run a business with a website. Here's the part almost nobody covers. The DSA squeezes the giant platforms, and your online shop is not TikTok. But the direction the regulatory wind is blowing in Europe reaches you all the same, and it boils down to one idea: the default option has to be the one that protects the user, not the one that exposes them. That already applies to GDPR, to cookies, and to whatever you collect in any form on your site.

If your site has registered users, visible profiles, comments, or anything a customer publishes, the uncomfortable question is: what's on display by default, before the user has chosen anything?

What you can do today

With your child's account, without any drama and ideally with them sitting next to you:

• Open the app's privacy settings and check whether the account is public or private. If it's public, switch it to private.
• Go through who can comment, message them or download their videos.
• And one conversation that beats any setting: make sure they understand that whatever they post publicly can be seen by anyone, forever, and out of their control.

With your website, a half-hour review:

• List which of your users' details are visible without them having asked for it.
• Check that consent boxes aren't pre-ticked.
• Consider whether your site could have underage users, and whether you've ever thought about it (most people haven't).
• Look up when you last updated your privacy policy and cookie notice. If the answer is "no idea", there's your task.

References

• European Commission — Preliminary findings on TikTok and minors' accounts (24/07/2026)
• European Commission — The enforcement framework under the Digital Services Act
• European Commission — Digital Services Act: questions and answers