TikTok Settles Children’s Privacy Class Action Lawsuit for $400 Million

TikTok and its parent organization, ByteDance, have reached a $400 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to resolve allegations that the social media platform violated federal laws intended to protect children’s online privacy.

This lawsuit originated in 2024 when the DOJ filed a case during the Biden administration. The agency accused TikTok of breaching the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by allowing millions of users under 13 to access the service while gathering their personal information without the needed parental consent.

In addition to the $400 million settlement, the agreement lays out measures aimed at strengthening protections for younger users. These measures encompass enhanced age verification processes, additional protections for minors, and initiatives to give parents more control over their children’s activities and private information. However, the settlement does not require TikTok or ByteDance to admit any wrongdoing. Axios was the first to report on this news.

The 2024 lawsuit argued that TikTok allowed a significant number of children to maintain accounts over several years, despite previous federal scrutiny regarding children’s privacy issues back in 2019. The company had previously resolved allegations related to its predecessor, Musical.ly, by paying $5.7 million for COPPA violations. As part of that agreement, TikTok committed to implementing strategies to prevent users under 13 from creating accounts.

Nonetheless, the allegations assert that TikTok continued to struggle with identifying and removing underage users. The lawsuit claimed that the company retained and used information from children, including data that could be used for targeted advertising, even after employee concerns about underage users were raised.

Furthermore, it was alleged that TikTok altered certain elements of its registration policies in ways that complicated the verification of users’ ages.

The settlement comes as TikTok faces growing scrutiny regarding its user safety protocols. Just days before the settlement announcement, Bloomberg reported that TikTok had intentionally disabled an algorithmic safety feature for about 10% of U.S. users as part of an experiment, a measure intended to reduce the chances of users encountering harmful or potentially damaging content.

This revelation prompted backlash from lawmakers. Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut sent a letter to TikTok CEO Shou Chew and Adam Presser, CEO of the company’s U.S. operations, voicing their concerns about this decision.