European Commission preliminary finds TikTok in breach of Digital Services Act for failing to ensure safe accounts for minors

On 24 July 2026, the European Commission sent TikTok preliminary findings indicating that TikTok accounts of minors do not meet the safety standards required under the Digital Services Act (DSA). This setting also allows content published by ‘older' minors (16-17 years old) to be recommended to any other TikTok user through the For You Feed. Even when minors choose private accounts, their accounts can be easily found through the ‘following' and ‘followers' lists of other users, and their profile photos remain accessible to anyone, including users without a TikTok account. Under the DSA, platforms accessible to minors must ensure a high level of privacy, safety, and security on their service. The Commission preliminarily considers that TikTok's account settings fail to meet this standard, as they expose minors' accounts and content too widely. The Commission preliminarily considers that TikTok – in line with the Guidelines on the protection of minors – should adjust the default settings of minors' ‘public' accounts, so that their content is, by default, visible only to TikTok users whom the minor has accepted.