TikTok Agrees to $400 Million US Settlement Over Child Privacy Violations
TikTok has agreed to pay $400 million to the US government to resolve a lawsuit alleging that the social media platform violated federal child privacy protections by collecting extensive data from millions of users under the age of 13 without obtaining appropriate parental consent.
The case was filed by the US Department of Justice in 2024 under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), a federal law designed to protect children’s personal information online. US officials argued that TikTok failed to effectively determine users’ ages and did not adequately prevent children under 13 from using the platform without parental authorization.
Under the settlement, TikTok and its parent company ByteDance will pay $300 million immediately, while another $100 million will be paid when the US government vacates a 2019 Federal Trade Commission consent decree involving TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly.
The settlement places TikTok among the technology companies that have faced significant financial penalties over children’s online privacy. Google’s YouTube previously paid $170 million in 2019, while Epic Games agreed to a $275 million penalty in 2022 over COPPA-related allegations.
The case also comes as regulators and lawmakers intensify scrutiny of social media companies over the impact of their platforms on children and teenagers. TikTok’s US operations have undergone significant changes since the original lawsuit, including changes involving ownership, privacy practices and controls for younger users.
