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At the meeting between TikTok and responsible agency |
At the regular yesterday’s press conference of the Ministry of Information and Communications, Mr. Le Quang Tu Do, Director of the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information under the Ministry of Information and Communications said that after discussing a comprehensive inspection with TikTok Vietnam, representatives of TikTok Singapore which directly manages and operates TikTok services in Vietnam had a working session with Vietnamese authorities.
After the meeting, TikTok Singapore sent a written commitment to implement the requests of the authorities, especially the commitment to protect children in the TikTok environment. The representative of TikTok Singapore committed to compliance with the requirements of Vietnamese authorities, including solutions to protect children on the TikTok platform. As per the commitment, the social video company will switch on a one-hour time limit for its users who are under 18 years old in a move to curb the amount of time teens spend on the service. Moreover, TikTok will ban the accounts of children under 13 years old.
Currently, TikTok Singapore is finalizing detailed information on the time, implementation progress and methods and measures to implement the above solutions, expected to be sent back to Vietnamese authorities this week.
Mr. Le Quang Tu Do said that in recent months, the Ministry of Information and Communications has been using its internet monitoring software which has shown that the TikTok platform has had positive changes. Harmful contents in Titktok have decreased significantly. Furthermore, TikTok has also coordinated well with authorities in preventing malicious accounts.
In October, TikTok blocked and removed 53 violating contents. Of these, 44 accounts were detected to have content that sabotaged the Party and the State, defamed and insulted leaders.
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Director of the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information Le Quang Tu Do at the meeting |
In early October, the Ministry of Information and Communications announced the results of an interdisciplinary inspection of TikTok's operations in Vietnam. Inspectors pointed out many of TikTok's violations related to protecting children's rights. Amongst violations, TikTok does not have measures and tools to ensure the safety of children's confidential information and private lives.
TikTok also does not detect and remove images, documents, and information that are inappropriate for children and affect children's healthy development. Moreover, TikTok still allows children under 13 years old to open accounts even though the social networking platform is only for people aged 13 and over.
Therefore, the interdisciplinary inspection team required TikTok to implement child protection measures according to the provisions of Articles 33, 34, 35, 36, and 37 of chapter IV on the responsibility to protect children in the online environment of the Government’s Decree. No. 56/2017/ND-CP detailing a number of articles of the Law on Children.
In particular, TikTok should pay special attention to the following issues regarding children’s privacy law including authenticating account information to detect cases of children not declaring the correct age to use TikTok; some children have provided the wrong birthday date which would make them older than 13. Accounts and videos of children under 13 years old will be deleted.
Plus, Tiktok will add a new 60-minute screen time limit for users under the age of 18 in an effort to get young people to become more aware of how much time they spend on the app. Children will not allowed to make money through TikTok. Additionally, children's personal information will be protected on the platform. Any posts with children's pictures must have the approval of the child's parents, caregivers, and guardians or the video must cover or blur the child's image before posting.
