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

TikTok has been under pressure in the US since 2024.

TikTok has concurred to pay $400m (£293m) to the US to end a legal action alleging its platform violated children‘s privacy, marking one of the largest ever settlements over the issue.

Key Analysis and Detailed Timeline

The deal stems from a 2024 suit 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.

"Children and parents are better protected today than they were when this case began," assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate said.

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

Broader Impact and Sector Outlook

Meta is also now facing penalties that could exceed hundreds of billions of dollars stemming from COPPA violations alleged A jury trial in the legal action started this week, with the Instagram and Facebook owner accused of targeting child users and profiting off of them.

While the TikTok legal action 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.

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Under the terms of the deal, TikTok and It will pay another $100m when the government vacates a 2019 consent decree, external with the Federal Trade Commission.

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

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

When the legal action was filed, attorneys for the US stated 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 get parental consent for use from those underage.

In 2024, former President Biden pushed for TikTok to be either banned, or have the company divest its US operations. President Donald Trump went on to support divestment of the app, which took place last year.

Its US operations are now 81% owned A representative of TikTok did not respond to the BBC for comment.

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