TikTok to pay $400M settlement in US children's privacy case
The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission jointly sued TikTok in 2024.
TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have agreed to pay a $400 million settlement to resolve a lawsuit from the US Department of Justice. The lawsuit alleged that the video-sharing platform violated federal children's privacy laws by gathering personal information from users under 13 without parental consent. TikTok will pay $300 million upfront and an additional $100 million once an order is entered vacating a prior consent decree related to ByteDance's predecessor, Musical.ly.
This settlement represents one of the largest recoveries obtained from a case involving the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which prohibits websites from collecting personal data from children under 13 without parental permission. The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission jointly initiated the lawsuit in 2024, claiming that TikTok had put the safety of millions of children at risk by collecting their data without parental knowledge.
The settlement funds' usage is currently unclear, as the Trump administration previously considered utilizing them for beautification projects. Meanwhile, TikTok faces ongoing scrutiny worldwide, including investigations in the EU and the UK, which are examining the platform's compliance with child protection standards and age verification models.
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