TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance have agreed to pay $400 million to settle US Justice Department allegations that the short-video platform violated children’s online privacy laws.
The Justice Department sued the companies in 2024, accusing them of failing to adequately protect children’s privacy and unlawfully collecting personal information from users under the age of 13. The case centred on allegations that TikTok and ByteDance breached a US law requiring online services aimed at children to obtain parental consent before collecting their personal data.
Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said the department’s priority “is ensuring that children are protected online and that companies entrusted with their personal information meet their legal obligations.”
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Under the proposed settlement, TikTok will pay $300 million upfront. A further $100 million will be paid once a court order vacates an earlier consent decree reached with the Federal Trade Commission in 2019 involving Musical.ly, TikTok’s predecessor.
The FTC had alleged at the time that Musical.ly knew young children were using the platform but failed to obtain parental consent before collecting information including names and email addresses. The company agreed to pay a $5.7 million penalty as part of that case.
The latest settlement comes after significant changes to TikTok’s US operations. In January, ByteDance agreed to establish a majority American-owned joint venture aimed at securing US user data and preventing a potential nationwide ban on an app used by more than 200 million Americans.
The government said TikTok has also made substantial changes to its ownership, management, compliance systems and privacy practices since the original complaint was filed. According to the Justice Department, the settlement “ensures that American families continue to benefit from stronger protections without the delay and uncertainty of protracted litigation.”
In a separate court filing, TikTok’s US joint venture said all users must provide their date of birth before accessing the platform. The company also said it has developed age-moderation systems designed to identify children under 13 who have entered a false age.
TikTok said it now has hundreds of employees trained to moderate underage accounts and removes tens of thousands of such accounts as a result.
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