TikTok to pay $400m in US child privacy settlement

TikTok and parent company ByteDance have agreed to pay $400 million to settle a US Department of Justice lawsuit over claims that the video-sharing platform violated federal children's privacy laws, the department said Friday.

The Justice Department said TikTok will pay $300 million immediately and another $100 million upon entry of an order vacating a prior consent decree against TikTok's predecessor, Musical.ly.

The department described the settlement as “one of the largest recoveries ever obtained” in a case involving the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, known as COPPA. COPPA bars websites from gathering personal information from children younger than 13 without parental permission.

The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission jointly sued TikTok in 2024. They alleged that the platform put the safety of millions of children at risk by collecting their personal data without parental permission.

The lawsuit claimed TikTok allowed children to use the app and collected and used personal data from young users without telling their parents. It also claimed that accounts created in a “Kids Mode” for users younger than 13 gathered email addresses and other personal information.

The United States filed a COPPA lawsuit in 2019 against Musical.ly, which ByteDance bought in 2017 and later merged into TikTok. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It was not immediately clear what the settlement funds will be used for. ABC News reported in May that the Trump administration was considering using the funds for ongoing “beautification” projects, including work involving the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, the White House ballroom and an arch.

The settlement comes as TikTok faces wider scrutiny over children's safety. The European Union accused TikTok in July of failing to protect children through account settings that can expose them to risks such as cyberbullying and predatory behavior, putting the company at risk of a large fine. Britain's communications regulator also launched an investigation in July into whether TikTok is doing enough under UK law to protect children from harmful content, including its age-verification model.