Italy's data authority orders TikTok to block users of unverified age

On 22 January 2021, Italy's data protection authority, the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali, ordered TikTok to immediately block any user whose age could not be established. The emergency measure followed the death of a 10-year-old girl in Palermo, Sicily, who had reportedly taken part in a viral online challenge involving self-suffocation.

The Garante acted under European Union data protection rules, which set conditions for processing children's data. It argued that TikTok's sign-up system, which relied on users declaring their own age, did not effectively keep out children under the platform's minimum age of 13. Italian prosecutors also opened an investigation into the case.

TikTok said it would cooperate and agreed to introduce stronger age-verification safeguards. In the following weeks it removed a large number of Italian accounts suspected of belonging to underage users and said it would review how it checked ages.

The case became an early example of a European regulator using its powers against a social media platform over child safety, and it is often cited in later debates about age limits and protecting minors online.