TikTok pays $400 million in US over child data lawsuit

Social media giant TikTok has reached a $400 million settlement in the United States to resolve a lawsuit accusing the company of unlawfully collecting data from children under the age of 13. The legal action, initiated in 2024, alleged that TikTok allowed minors to create accounts without obtaining the necessary consent from their parents, thereby violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

The U.S. Justice Department indicated that the settlement does not constitute an admission of guilt by TikTok. However, the department acknowledged that the platform has made substantial modifications to its privacy policies and operational practices since the lawsuit's inception. These changes aim to enhance user data protection, particularly for younger users.

In court filings, the U.S. division of TikTok asserted that all users are required to provide their birth dates. The platform also employs age verification systems and reportedly deletes tens of thousands of accounts belonging to users under 13. U.S. online platforms generally enforce a minimum age of 13, a standard established partly due to child data protection laws, though children sometimes circumvent these rules by providing false birth dates.

TikTok's U.S. operations, previously owned by Chinese parent company ByteDance, are now majority-owned by a new entity comprising American investors. This ownership change was reportedly driven by U.S. President Donald Trump, who had threatened to ban TikTok from operating in the country unless its ownership structure was altered. The government argued that this restructuring was necessary to protect the data of over 200 million U.S. users.

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She overstayed her allotted time in violation of our nation's laws.