The Republic of Ireland has fined Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok 345 million euros over child data violations.

The country’s Data Protection Commission said in a statement that it has handed down the “administrative fine”, which is equivalent to 369 million dollars, over the breaches it uncovered in a two-year inquiry.

The agency also TikTok three months “to bring its processing into compliance” with its rules.

The watchdog in September 2021 began examining TikTok’s compliance in relation to platform settings and personal data processing for users aged under 18.

In response to the fine, TikTok said it “respectfully disagrees” with the verdict and was “evaluating” how to proceed.

A TikTok spokesman said “The DPC’s criticisms are focused on features and settings that were in place three years ago, and that we made changes to well before the investigation even began, such as setting all under 16 accounts to private by default”.