TikTok Inc. and its Chinese parent company ByteDance Ltd. have settled out of court with the US Department of Justice for violating U.S. online privacy laws related to children’s accounts.
The settlement follows a lawsuit filed by the FTC in 2024 on behalf of the U.S. Justice Department. Regulatory authorities alleged TikTok allowed millions of children younger than 13 to create accounts without their parents’ knowledge or consent. Parents could not locate and delete accounts belonging to their children, the government also alleged.
The case hinges on protections established under US children’s online privacy rules that prohibit the collection and use of children’s personal information. Platforms that knowingly collect information from children below the age of 13 are generally required to obtain verifiable parental consent and provide appropriate mechanisms for parents to review or delete their children’s information.
TikTok's practices did not ensure children under 13 did not create accounts, the suit said. Regulators claimed that the company collected information from some of these children even when they were creating accounts on a version of the platform for children.
The Justice Department also raised concerns about TikTok's "Kids Mode." The government alleged that accounts created through the child-focused mode could still result in the collection of personal information, including email addresses and other data.
The other big issue the government mentioned was that parents can't remove their children's accounts. TikTok made it difficult for parents to ask for deletion and left children’s accounts and associated personal information on the platform longer than they should have been, they said.
The settlement is in excess of $400 million, but TikTok and ByteDance still have to get approval from a U.S. court before it gets final. The settlement is meant to settle the government’s allegations without necessarily proving that the companies committed the violations.
The case is especially important because TikTok has been under intense scrutiny from its users and the U.S. government over privacy and national security concerns. The platform’s ownership by ByteDance has been the subject of months of debate in Washington over the treatment of American users’ data and the potential influence of the Chinese government.
The privacy settlement also comes after a big deal involving TikTok's US operations. ByteDance recently completed a long-awaited deal to sell parts of TikTok’s American business to US investors, in response to national security concerns surrounding the company’s ownership and operations in the United States.
TikTok’s settlement also poses another major regulatory headache at a time when technology companies are under increasing pressure to provide stronger protections for young users. Social media platforms have come under growing regulatory scrutiny from regulators, lawmakers and parents over how easily children access their services and how companies process the data generated by young users.
Children’s privacy has become more important as the use of social media on a wider scale among younger audiences. Companies, regulators have argued, must do more than just put age restrictions on paper and must have systems in place to prevent children from accessing services that they aren’t too old to use.
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the settlement. The company has previously been under regulatory investigation and legal challenges for privacy, data handling and treatment of younger users in various jurisdictions.
If approved by the court, the $400 million agreement will bring a major US privacy case against TikTok and ByteDance closer to resolution. But the settlement will also keep attention on how social media companies verify users' ages, obtain parental consent and respond when parents request that children’s accounts and personal data be removed.
The case highlights the increasing legal and regulatory risks facing major social media platforms when it comes to children's online safety. And as governments continue to strengthen oversight of digital services, companies like TikTok are likely to face greater expectations to establish effective age verification, parental controls and data protection measures for young users.
