TikTok usable by thirteen year olds? But do they have the legal capacity to sign a contract? Maybe it was better to postpone everything

The tragic death of a ten-year-old girl in Palermo has finally opened the debate on social media access, TikTok in the lead, to minors. We are talking above all about TikTok because it is a media specifically aimed at young people, with its microblogging scheme and very short videos. Without wishing to be dramatic, a social media is like a huge square with thousands of people: would you send a 10 or 12 year old child to a square full of strangers, without accompanying him or having him accompany him?

Finally, the Privacy Authority has intervened and TikTok has been forced, in some way, to intervene, even if in a completely insufficient way. The Chinese company has committed to:

• identify all users by asking their age and excluding those who declare less than 13 years old,
• use the Ai to identify underage users (but who controls the algorithms?);
• a little more information on how to make your profile safer.

Little, actually nothing. However, it seems incredible that these companies can operate with and on Italian citizens in complete disregard for European regulations and the rules of the civil code.

The European privacy regulation 2016/679 (article 8) states:

If the minor is under the age of 16, such processing is lawful only if and to the extent that such consent is given or authorized by the holder of parental responsibility. Member States may establish by law a lower age for these purposes provided it is not less than 13 years. 3. Paragraph 1 is without prejudice to the general provisions of contract law of the Member States, such as the rules on the validity, formation or effectiveness of a contract in relation to a minor.

So if we apply the European privacy regulation dry, there could be no users under the age of 16, except with parental authorization. But if we apply the last paragraph and then evaluate everything on the ability to act in force in the Italian legislation, we will not have to have TikTok users (or Facebook, or Twitter) under the age of 18, unless countersigned by the parents. Social media present deep privacy problems and "Commodify" users, so the problem of the ability to act is far from secondary. Instead everything is beautifully ignored, even by the Italian authorities.

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Can the TikTok article be used by 13-year-olds? But do they have the legal capacity to sign a contract? Perhaps it was better to postpone everything comes from ScenariEconomici.it .

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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/tiktok-utilizzabile-dai-tredicenni-ma-hanno-la-capacita-giuridica-di-firmare-un-contrtto-forse-eraa-meglio-rimandare-tutto/ on Thu, 04 Feb 2021 09:34:13 +0000.