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The Italian data privacy regulator ordered the video app TikTok to block the accounts of any user in Italy whose age it could not verify following the death of a 10-year-old girl who had been using the app.
In a statement, the regulator said that although TikTok had promised to ban the registration of children under the age of 13, it was easy to circumvent this rule.
As a result, he said that TikTok had to block unverified user accounts until at least February 15 pending more information.
A TikTok spokeswoman in Italy said the company was analyzing the communication received from the authority.
She said: “Privacy and security are top priorities for TikTok and we are constantly working to strengthen our policies, our processes and our technologies to protect our community and younger users in particular.”
Owned by China’s ByteDance, TikTok has grown rapidly in popularity around the world, especially among teenagers.
The ruling came after a girl died of suffocation in Palermo, Sicily, in a case that shocked Italy.
Her parents said that she had been participating in a so-called blackout challenge on TikTok, putting a belt around her neck and holding her breath while recording herself on her phone.
“TikTok was his world. And YouTube. That’s how he spent his time,” the girl’s father, Angelo Sicomero, said in the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
Prosecutors have opened an investigation into possible incitement to suicide and are looking to see if anyone invited the girl to participate in the challenge.
“The guard dog decided to intervene urgently after the terrible case of the 10-year-old girl from Palermo,” the authority said.
It said that TikTok was prohibited from “continuing to process user data for whom there is no absolute certainty of age and, consequently, of compliance with the provisions related to the age requirement.”
An official said this meant that users of unverified accounts would no longer be able to upload videos or interact with other people on the platform.
The watchdog said it had raised concerns with TikTok in December over what it called a series of violations, including allegations that the company had failed to protect minors.
He added that he had informed the Irish authorities of his decision because TikTok announced that it would carry out its European operations from Dublin.
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