TikTok to Pay $400 Million in Children’s Privacy Settlement
TikTok and ByteDance have agreed to pay $400 million to settle a US Justice Department case alleging they allowed millions of under-13s to use the platform and collect their data without parental consent. Ireland’s regulator fined the company €345 million over children’s accounts in 2023.
What was alleged: The 2024 complaint claimed millions of children under 13 used the platform, that their information was collected and used for targeted advertising, and that registration flows were changed to obscure age checks.
Previous Fine: Musical.ly, TikTok’s predecessor, paid $5.7 million in 2019 and agreed to stop children under 13 from creating accounts, a promise the government says was not kept.
European Context: Europe has been stricter on children’s data, with a third of fines against social platforms concerning children. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission fined TikTok €345 million in 2023.
Current Settlement Terms:
- Immediate Payment: $300 million is due immediately.
- Future Compliance: The rest will be paid once a consent decree against Musical.ly is vacated.
No Admission of Liability: Nobody has been found liable. The Justice Department’s announcement states that the claims resolved are allegations only.
Focus on Compliance: The settlement obligates TikTok to implement stronger age controls, add safeguards for younger users, and provide parents with better oversight tools.
European Future: The EU has an age verification app ready, Ursula von der Leyen is pushing for bloc-wide protections, and Norway plans to ban social media for under-16s with liability sitting on the platforms. However, verifying a user’s age while protecting data remains a challenge.
For ByteDance, $400 million is a relatively small cost compared to the compliance terms, which regulators will be closely monitoring.