TikTok to pay $400m to US in one of largest child privacy settlements

What the report says

TikTok has agreed to pay $400 million to the US government to resolve a child privacy lawsuit, in what BBC World News describes as one of the largest settlements of its kind. The case was brought in 2024 by the Department of Justice under former President Joe Biden and accused TikTok and parent company ByteDance of collecting large amounts of data from millions of users under 13, in breach of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA.

According to the BBC, the agreement requires an immediate $300 million payment to the Justice Department, with a further $100 million due once the government lifts a separate 2019 consent decree involving the Federal Trade Commission. The report says the case concerns TikTok’s earlier operations and that the settlement does not address wider issues around the company’s current structure beyond the fine.

The BBC noted that US authorities said TikTok had been directed at children but did not adequately verify users’ ages or secure parental consent. The Justice Department said TikTok has changed since the lawsuit was filed, including in ownership, privacy controls and youth protections. A TikTok representative did not comment.

The settlement comes as US scrutiny of child privacy and social media remains intense, with Meta also facing major litigation over similar allegations. More broadly, COPPA has been central to several high-profile enforcement actions against technology firms in recent years, underscoring the continuing regulatory focus on how platforms collect and handle data from younger users.