TikTok Agrees to Pay $400 Million to Settle US Children’s Privacy Case

TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, have agreed to pay $400 million to settle allegations by the U.S. Justice Department that the video-sharing platform violated children’s online privacy laws.

The U.S. government filed the lawsuit in 2024, accusing TikTok of collecting personal information from children under 13 without obtaining the required consent from their parents.

Under the settlement, TikTok will pay $300 million immediately, while another $100 million will be paid after a previous Federal Trade Commission consent order involving TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly, is vacated.

The FTC had previously found that Musical.ly knew young children were using the platform but failed to obtain parental consent before collecting information such as names and email addresses. The company paid $5.7 million in that earlier case.

The Justice Department said the settlement is aimed at strengthening protections for children online and ensuring companies properly safeguard children’s personal information.

TikTok has said it has introduced stronger age-verification and moderation systems. The company requires users to provide their date of birth and says it uses technology and hundreds of trained employees to identify and remove accounts belonging to children under 13.

The settlement comes as TikTok continues to face scrutiny in the United States over data privacy, ownership and national-security concerns.

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