TikTok and ByteDance settle US children’s privacy case for $400 million
The settlement resolves a 2024 lawsuit alleging violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, requiring stronger age controls and parental oversight without an admission of liability.
TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, have reached a $400 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to resolve long-standing allegations regarding the platform’s handling of children’s data. The agreement, first reported by Axios, resolves a lawsuit filed in 2024 under the Biden administration, which alleged that the social media giant violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
According to the DOJ, TikTok allowed millions of children under the age of 13 to use the service and collected their personal information without the required parental consent. The settlement mandates that the company implement stronger age-related controls, introduce additional safeguards for young users, and provide parents with enhanced oversight of their children’s activity and personal information. Notably, the agreement does not require TikTok or ByteDance to admit to wrongdoing.
This resolution follows a previous legal dispute in 2019, when TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly, paid $5.7 million to settle similar COPPA allegations. At that time, the company committed to preventing children under 13 from creating accounts. However, the 2024 lawsuit alleged that TikTok continued to struggle with identifying and removing underage users, even as internal employees raised concerns about the presence of young users on the platform.
The DOJ further alleged that TikTok maintained and used data belonging to children, including information suitable for targeted advertising, and had altered registration policies in ways that made age verification more difficult. These claims suggest a persistent challenge in balancing user growth with regulatory compliance for a platform heavily used by younger demographics.
The settlement arrives amid increased scrutiny over TikTok’s user safety measures. Just days before the agreement was reached, Bloomberg reported that TikTok had intentionally disabled an algorithmic safeguard for roughly 10% of U.S. users during an experiment. This safeguard was designed to reduce the likelihood of users being overwhelmed by harmful content.
The decision to disable the safeguard drew criticism from bipartisan lawmakers. Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut sent a letter to TikTok CEO Shou Chew and Adam Presser, the chief executive of the company’s U.S. business, questioning the rationale behind the move.
