TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, have agreed to a $400 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve allegations that the social media platform violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The lawsuit, initiated in 2024 under the Biden administration, contended that TikTok allowed millions of users under the age of 13 to access the app and collected their personal data without parental consent. This settlement is meant to address these federal privacy concerns without TikTok or ByteDance admitting any wrongdoing.

The original DOJ complaint highlighted that TikTok continued to struggle with identifying and removing users under 13 years old, despite already settling a previous case involving its predecessor, Musical.ly, in 2019. That earlier settlement of $5.7 million required the company to prevent children under 13 from creating accounts. However, according to the new allegations, TikTok allegedly maintained and used children’s data, including for targeted advertising, even after internal concerns were raised about the presence of underage users. The company was also accused of modifying registration policies to obscure the detection of underage accounts.

Beyond the financial penalty, TikTok’s settlement includes commitments to enhance protections for young users. These measures involve stronger age verification controls, additional security safeguards for children, and improved parental oversight of children’s activities and personal information on the platform. These steps are intended to bolster compliance with COPPA and ensure a safer environment in the app for minors.

This development comes amid ongoing scrutiny of TikTok’s user safety practices. Just days before the settlement, reports emerged that TikTok had disabled an algorithmic safeguard designed to protect about 10% of U.S. users from harmful content during an experiment, prompting criticism from lawmakers across party lines. Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal formally questioned TikTok’s CEO Shou Chew and its U.S. business chief Adam Presser about this decision, highlighting continued concern over the company’s handling of user safety.