TikTok to Pay $400 Million to Settle U.S. Child Privacy Lawsuit

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) announced on Friday that ByteDance-owned TikTok will pay $400 million to settle a 2024 lawsuit accusing the company of violating U.S. child privacy laws. The settlement includes an immediate payment of $300 million and an additional $100 million upon the vacating of a prior consent decree against TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly.

The complaint, filed in August 2024 alongside the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), alleged that TikTok knowingly allowed children under 13 to create accounts and unlawfully collected data from users in ‘Kids Mode,’ while failing to comply with parents’ requests to delete their children’s data. TikTok disputed the claims, stating they related to past practices that were either inaccurate or already addressed.

The DoJ described the settlement as one of the largest recoveries ever under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. called it ‘a major victory for American children and parents,’ emphasizing the department’s commitment to protecting children online.

This is not TikTok’s first regulatory action over child privacy. In September 2023, the company was fined €345 million under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for processing children’s data. Earlier this year, a U.S. joint venture allowed TikTok to continue operating without a ban, in line with a divest-or-ban law upheld by the Supreme Court.