TikTok and ByteDance agreed to a $400 million settlement in a federal child-privacy case that accused the video platform of collecting personal information from millions of children younger than 13 without their parents’ notice or consent, the Justice Department announced Friday.
TikTok will pay $300 million immediately. Another $100 million will come due if a federal court enters an order vacating a 2019 consent decree against Musical.ly, TikTok’s predecessor. The Justice Department ranked the agreement among the largest recoveries in a Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act case.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) filed a separate state lawsuit in January 2025 accusing TikTok of deceptively promoting its app as safe for children. That action raises different claims and remains separate from the federal COPPA settlement.
Settlement splits the payment
The settlement resolves a civil lawsuit the Justice Department filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on a referral from the Federal Trade Commission.
“This settlement is a major victory for American children and parents,” Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. said.
The Justice Department said the settlement resolves allegations only and that no court has determined liability.
The department also said TikTok has strengthened safeguards for younger users, improved age controls and expanded parental oversight since the government filed the case in 2024. DOJ credited those changes with advancing the public interest behind the lawsuit.
Complaint detailed alleged privacy failures
The 2024 complaint alleged TikTok knowingly allowed children younger than 13 to create regular accounts, use features available to adults and surrender personal information without parental notice or consent.
The complaint also accused TikTok and ByteDance affiliates of frustrating parents who asked the company to delete their children’s accounts and data. In a sample of approximately 1,700 accounts that drew complaints or deletion requests, roughly 500 remained active as of November 1, 2021, the complaint alleged. Several hundred were still active in March 2023.
The complaint further alleged TikTok’s internal systems and employees identified underage accounts without reliably routing them for deletion. The complaint said the problem affected millions of accounts, although it did not identify an exact total.
A 2019 consent decree required Musical.ly’s successor companies to comply with COPPA and imposed a $5.7 million civil penalty. The new settlement ties its final $100 million payment to a court order vacating that decree.
Texas lawsuit raised a separate claim
Paxton’s 2025 lawsuit accused TikTok of violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act by marketing the app as safe for children while downplaying the availability of explicit content.
The Texas case focuses on marketing and content-safety claims. The federal settlement centers on data collection, parental consent and account deletion under COPPA.
Provided by Dallas Express
