Musical.ly to pay over Rs 40 crores in settlement over allegations of illegally collecting children's personal information

operator of a video-sharing app popular with teenrs agreed to pay $5.7 million to settle federal allegations it illegally collected personal information from children .

Federal Tre Commission said Wednesday penalty against lip-syncing app Musical.ly, w kwn as TikTok, is largest ever obtained in a children’s privacy case.

FTC said app violated federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which requires kid-oriented websites to get parents’ consent before collecting personal information from children under 13.

app changed its practices in 2017 to officially ban kids under 13 from joining, but it wasn’t hard to find children as young as 8 or 9 sharing short videos of mselves on platform.

“Just because you say it’s intended for over-13 doesn’t mean that it is,” said Andrew Smith, director of FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, in a conference call Wednesday.

Musical.ly, founded in 2014 and registered in Cayman Islands, grew rapidly and operated out of offices in Shanghai and California. FTC said app has been downloed by more than 200 million people worldwide, and 65 million in U.S.

It built a devoted community of self-described “musers” who regularly shared lip-syncing, dancing, gymnastics or comedy videos. But app also raised concerns among many parents, especially after news reports of ult predators using app to contact children.

Smith said that along with failing to equately seek parent’s permission, operators of Musical.ly didn’t hor parents’ requests for personal information to be deleted. Smith said company deleted some under- accounts but didn’t delete ir videos and profile information from its own servers.

Profile information often included email dresses as well as a child’s name, , school and picture. Until October 2016, one of app’s features allowed users to find nearby users within a 50-mile rius.

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Beijing-based ByteDance Techlogy anunced it was acquiring platform in late 2017, and last summer folded Musical.ly into its own popular video app, TikTok, which is based in Los Angeles.

TikTok said in a blog post Wednesday that in conjunction with FTC agreement, it’s starting a separate app for younger U.S. users with stronger safety and privacy protections. Children using new app will be able to watch videos but won’t be able to share ir own videos, make comments, maintain a profile or mess or users.

TikTok’s intention to start a new app for children was troubling to Josh Golin, who directs Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood.

“TikTok should be where near children and children should be where near TikTok,” Golin said.

Golin and or privacy vocates were also underwhelmed by FTC’s record fine, arguing that big companies like ByteDance will see it as merely cost of doing business.

Massachusetts Democratic U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, who authored deces-old privacy law FTC’s complaint was based on, said in a statement Wednesday that fine “is t high eugh for harm that is done to children and to deter violations of law in future by or companies.”

Children’s vocates have pushed FTC to investigate wher or companies, including Google’s YouTube, are similarly violating children’s online privacy.

FTC said its Musical.ly investigation was sparked in part by a referral from Better Business Bureau’s Children’s vertising Review Unit, a group set up by industry to regulate itself.