Britain's privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), has imposed a £12.7 million ($15.8 million) fine on TikTok, the viral short video app, for misusing children's data over a two-year period, The Guardian reported on Tuesday.

The fine comes weeks after the app was banned from UK government phones amid security concerns. 

The ICO, which looked into TikTok's data breaches between May 2018 and July 2020, found that the viral short video platform allowed as many as 1.4 million children in the UK under 13 to use it in 2020, despite the platform's own rules prohibiting underage users from setting up accounts.

According to the agency, TikTok did not do enough to detect and remove users under the age of 13, and even though it knew younger children were using the app, it did not obtain their parents' consent to process their data as required by UK data protection laws.

TikTok initially faced a 27 million-pound fine, which was reduced after the company persuaded regulators to drop other charges.

TikTok has publicly stated its disagreement with the watchdog's decision. The company said in a statement, “We invest heavily to help keep under 13s off the platform and our 40,000-strong safety team works around the clock to help keep the platform safe for our community. We will continue to review the decision and are considering next steps.”

TIkTok said it has improved its registration system since the data breaches happened by no longer allowing users to simply declare that they are of age and look for other proofs that the account is being used by someone under the age of 13.

It is worth noting that the initial fine imposed on the company was £27 million, but the amount was reduced after TikTok persuaded regulators to drop other charges.