that they had stopped collecting data on under 18s too. tiktok and youtube are still collecting data on this age group. though youtube says it will reduce the amount it is collecting. we didn t get a clear answerfrom facebook, which owns instagram. what s clear is the new code doesn t stop companies collecting personal data on under 18s. ad tech and big tech sometimes know more about a young person than their parents do, and that can be in ways that might get them in trouble with their parents. heather burns is a digital rights activist. she says uk data protection laws didn t need strengthening, they just need better enforcement. there are laws and legal frameworks in place. the question is, are they accessible to people? are companies obeying them, working within the law? we need companies to be more
there was either an ad or, like, a promotion for something. is it really sort of obvious to you? yeah. is itjust normal to you, or does it annoy you? what are the feelings there? it feels normal. yeah. yeah, it s just normal. you just sort of get used to it. - so, do you all have your phones on you? yeah. i want to do an experiment to see if they realise how social media companies are using their personal data to target content at them. do all of you have the tiktok app? yeah. when you look on tiktok and you think about the type of content you tend to see there, do you have any guesses on, when you open your app, what might pop up? for me it s probably anime s going to pop up. anime? mm hm. normally the first thing to - come up is an advert on mine. advert? yeah, it s an advert. oh, yeah, adverts. it s always an advert. 0k. so what do the students find when they all check their phones, at the same time, in the same place? it s boxing. someone boxing. painting. anything else?
though many social media users are much younger than that. i ve got a fresh device, so the algorithm can t pick up any data trail. and i m going to start scrolling. within minutes the algorithm has picked up that i m in scotland, and then glasgow. as a 13 year old, i m presented with this pop up saying that my account is private. it doesn t change what i see, but it limits who can see any videos i post. and then another pop up. this one nudges the 13 year old user to help tiktok make money by keeping personalised ads switched on. last year tiktok s parent company made £25 billion. this lawyer says the whole point of keeping people online longer is it allows platforms like tiktok to harvest increasing amounts of data.