TikTok has agreed to pay $400 million to settle a US Department of Justice lawsuit accusing the app of violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA.
The Verge reports that the DOJ announced the settlement on Friday, resolving a lawsuit the department filed in 2024. According to The Verge, the government alleged that TikTok collected data from children without notifying parents or obtaining their consent.
The BBC reports that the case targeted TikTok and its parent company ByteDance over the collection of "vast amounts of data" on millions of users under the age of 13, and describes the deal as one of the largest child privacy settlements to date.
TechCrunch notes the agreement comes two years after the DOJ first alleged the violations. Engadget reports that the Justice Department said the app has made significant strides in privacy protections since the 2024 suit was filed.
A settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing, and none of the source reports indicate that TikTok conceded the allegations. What the deal does is close out one of the highest-profile enforcement actions the US government has brought against the platform on privacy grounds — separate from the long-running political fight over TikTok's ownership.
COPPA is the main federal law protecting the personal information of children under 13 online. It requires services to tell parents what they collect from young users and to get permission first. Regulators have leaned on it repeatedly as the primary tool for policing how social apps treat their youngest users.
Why it matters: a nine-figure penalty signals that US regulators are willing to attach real financial consequences to how large platforms handle children's data, raising the cost of getting age and consent rules wrong.