Brazil imposes $30 million fine on TikTok for child safety violations

Brazil imposes $30 million fine on TikTok for child safety violations

Brazil's data protection authority imposed a fine of 153.7 million reais ($29.9 million) on TikTok on Tuesday for failing to implement adequate child safety measures, marking one of the most significant enforcement actions under the country's strengthened data privacy framework.

The National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) determined that TikTok was not taking necessary measures to prevent minors from accessing the platform and had been processing data from at least 8 million children in Brazil. The regulator identified systemic deficiencies in the platform's age-verification mechanisms and found that collected data was being used to deliver targeted advertising to young users.

Fabricio Lopes, an enforcement director at ANPD, told a press conference that the fine represents a "powerful signal to other platforms regarding how seriously the ANPD takes this work." He expressed hope that other social media companies would "get the message" about compliance expectations.

Legal framework and enhanced enforcement

The enforcement action comes under Brazil's Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados (LGPD), the country's General Data Protection Law that took effect in August 2020. The law permits administrative fines of up to 2 percent of a company's Brazil-sourced revenue, capped at 50 million reais per infraction. The TikTok penalty substantially exceeds the 50 million reais maximum under the Digital Statute for Children and Adolescents, a complementary law that took effect in March 2026 requiring users under 16 to link their accounts to a parent or legal guardian.

The ANPD gained independent regulatory agency status in December 2025, acquiring functional, technical, decision-making, administrative, and financial autonomy that has strengthened its enforcement capacity. This institutional upgrade has enabled the regulator to pursue more aggressive action against platforms.

ANPD director Lorena Giuberti Coutinho indicated that much stronger enforcement lies ahead. On August 21, the agency began monitoring 22 digital platforms, generative AI tools, and app stores for compliance with the Digital ECA, including major services such as Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, X, Discord, YouTube, and AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude.

Platform-specific violations

The regulator identified specific technical configurations that contributed to violations. TikTok's "logged-out feed" feature, which allows users to browse content without creating an account, is available in Brazil but not in the United States or Europe, where access is restricted to registered users. This feature enabled minors to bypass age-verification checks entirely.

Under Brazilian law, a child is defined as anyone under 12 years of age, while an adolescent is anyone between 12 and 18, with both categories subject to special data protection requirements.

Required remediation measures

In addition to the financial penalty, ANPD ordered ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, to delete data collected in violation of regulations. TikTok has committed to suspending all advertisements for users who are not logged in and implementing a comprehensive compliance plan to improve protection for children and adolescents.

The platform will be required to automatically apply stricter privacy settings to accounts belonging to children under 16, strengthen parental supervision systems, and implement more rigorous content filters. ANPD official Coutinho said TikTok had committed to "implementing a compliance plan to improve the protection of children and adolescents."

In a statement, TikTok said the fine stems from concerns raised in 2021 and "does not take into account" measures implemented since then. The company noted it has rolled out over 50 safety features aimed at teens over the past six years, including restricting direct messaging for children under 16, preventing recommendation of their content to strangers, and allowing parents to set screen-time limits and block accounts. TikTok has ten days to appeal the fine.

Broader regulatory context

Brazil has taken an increasingly tough stance on social media regulation, cracking down on disinformation and implementing stringent requirements for platform accountability. In 2024, the platform X was blocked for 40 days until it complied with Supreme Court orders to remove accounts spreading disinformation.

The Digital ECA legislation was rapidly accelerated in August 2025 after influencer Felipe Bressanim published a video denouncing the sexualization of children online that received 52 million views on YouTube, prompting swift passage of a bill that had been under consideration since 2022.

Earlier this month, ANPD also ordered popular streaming platform Discord to suspend livestreams and video calls after a teenage girl was allegedly encouraged to take her own life during a broadcast. Discord filed an appeal on Monday that remains under review.

The Brazilian enforcement action follows a pattern of global regulatory scrutiny of TikTok's child data practices. Ireland's Data Protection Commission fined the platform €345 million ($368 million) in September 2023, while British regulators imposed a £12.7 million ($15.7 million) penalty in April 2023 for similar violations.

Last week, TikTok agreed to pay $400 million to settle a lawsuit with the US Department of Justice over claims that the video-sharing platform collected children's personal data without parental permission.