TikTok pays $400 million to settle US child privacy lawsuit — admits no wrongdoing

TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have agreed to pay $400 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) over allegations that the social media platform violated federal child privacy laws.

The case, originally filed in 2024 under the Biden administration, accused TikTok of breaching the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The DOJ alleged that the platform allowed millions of users under the age of 13 to create accounts and collected their personal information — including browsing habits, device identifiers, and location data — without obtaining the required parental consent.

Under the terms of the settlement, TikTok will implement a series of measures designed to strengthen protections for young users. These include more robust age verification systems, stricter default privacy settings for minors, and enhanced tools for parents to monitor their children's activity and control what personal data is collected. The company also agreed to undergo regular independent audits of its privacy practices for a period of several years.

Notably, the settlement does not require TikTok or ByteDance to admit any wrongdoing or liability. The company stated that it disagreed with many of the allegations but chose to resolve the matter to focus on improving the platform's safety features.

This is not the first time TikTok has faced federal action over children's privacy. In 2019, the company paid $5.7 million to settle similar allegations involving its predecessor app, Musical.ly. As part of that earlier agreement, TikTok committed to blocking users under 13 from creating accounts. However, the 2024 lawsuit alleged that the company continued to struggle with identifying and removing underage users, and that it knowingly maintained and profited from accounts belonging to children. The DOJ claimed that TikTok's internal systems were deliberately designed to avoid detecting underage users, allowing the platform to keep growing its user base.

The $400 million settlement is one of the largest ever under COPPA, reflecting the scale of the alleged violations and the growing regulatory scrutiny of social media platforms' treatment of children.