TikTok agrees to teen limits in US settlement

TikTok has agreed to pay Alabama at least $100 million and implement new safety measures for teen users in a settlement over child safety on the platform. The agreement requires TikTok to impose a two-hour daily time limit, pauses after 15 minutes of use, and stricter age checks for users in Alabama.

The payout could rise to $300 million if 40 other attorneys general sign on to similar agreements with the company within a specified timeframe. According to Deutsche Welle Science, the settlement involves TikTok adding several child safety measures to its platform, including time limits and increased parental control, similar to a recent settlement reached by competitor Meta.

TikTok's US operations stated that the settlement "builds on our commitment and core objective to continually enhance our robust safety tools to protect teens." Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall sued TikTok last year, and at least 27 other states and Washington DC have brought similar lawsuits. TikTok faces thousands of lawsuits by individuals, school districts, and municipalities over its impact on teen mental health.

Brief written by urgent.news from Punch Nigeria, Punch, The Jakarta Post, Deutsche Welle Science, DW News — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.