TikTok to pay $400m to US in one of largest child privacy settlementsThe deal stems from a 2024 lawsuit alleging TikTok and its parent company ByteDance collected "vast amounts of data" on millions of users under the age of 13.15 mins agoUS & Canada

TikTok to pay $400m to US in one of largest child privacy settlements.

Key points

• Doing so was against the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), a federal law enacted in 2000.
• In 2024, former President Biden pushed for TikTok to be either banned, or have the firm divest its US operations.
• Under the terms of the accord, TikTok and ByteDance will immediately pay the DOJ $300m.
• While Bytdance maintains a 19% stake, its US operations are now 81% owned by a consortium of investors.
• "Children and parents are better protected today than they were when this case began, " assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate remarked.

TikTok has agreed to pay $400m (£293m) to the US to end a lawsuit alleging its platform violated childrens' privacy, marking one of the largest ever settlements over the matter.

Notably, the accord stems from a 2024 suit by the Department of Justice under former President Joe Biden alleging TikTok and its parent business ByteDance collected "vast amounts of data" on millions of users under the age of 13.

Doing so was against the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), a federal law enacted in 2000. It is the same law that dozens of US states are now suing Meta over.

Other firms to have paid penalties to the US administration for COPPA violations include Google's YouTube. It in 2019 paid $170m, and Epic Games, which in 2022 paid $275m.

Meta is additionally now facing penalties that could exceed hundreds of billions of dollars stemming from COPPA violations alleged by attorneys general of 29 US states. A jury trial in the lawsuit began this week, with the Instagram and Facebook owner accused of targeting child users and profiting off of them.

While the TikTok lawsuit predates last year's split of TikTok's US business and operations from its original base of China, the settlement only involves TikTok's operations in China.

Under the terms of the accord, TikTok and ByteDance will immediately pay the DOJ $300m. It will pay another $100m when the administration vacates a 2019 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission.

As part of the agreement, the predecessor to ByteDance, Musical.ly, was required to pay a $5.7m fine for COPPA violations and ensure it sought parental consent for any user aged under 13.

For context, the justice department did not detail on Friday any action against TikTok beyond the fine. According to But the department, since it sued the platform, TikTok has "undergone significant changes, " including to its ownership, privacy practices and platform controls for young users.

When the lawsuit was filed, attorneys for the US remarked there were more than 170 million teenagers using TikTok and that the app was "directed to children." Yet, it did not effectively gauge the age of users or secure parental consent for employ from those underage.

In 2024, former President Biden pushed for TikTok to be either banned, or have the firm divest its US operations. President Donald Trump went on to backing divestment of the app. It occurred last year.

For context, a representative of TikTok did not respond to the BBC for comment.

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For now, tikTok to pay $400m to US in one of largest child privacy remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.