TikTok Children's Privacy Lawsuit: The $400 Million COPPA Settlement

The Allegations

The US Department of Justice, on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission, sued TikTok and its parent ByteDance in August 2024 for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the federal law that requires companies to get a parent’s consent before collecting personal information from children under 13. The government alleged TikTok knowingly let under-13 users create regular accounts outside its restricted “Kids Mode,” collected and kept their data without parental consent, failed to delete accounts and data when parents asked, and had weak systems for finding and removing underage accounts.

COPPA violations are measured per child and per day, which is why child-privacy cases can carry very large potential penalties.

The Settlement

TikTok agreed to a $400 million settlement to resolve the government’s claims — one of the largest COPPA recoveries ever. The structure reflected the case’s history: a large sum payable to the government, with a portion tied to resolving an earlier consent decree that had bound TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly. Beyond the money, such settlements typically require the company to strengthen how it detects underage users and honors deletion requests. This is a government enforcement action, not a class action, so there is no consumer claims process for families to file.

The size of the payment signals how seriously regulators treat data collection from children.

What Parents Should Know

COPPA gives parents rights: to consent before a child’s data is collected, to review it and to have it deleted. Practically, use the parental controls and “family pairing” features on apps your children use, set accounts to the appropriate age, and know that platforms are legally required to remove under-13 accounts when notified. This case is a reminder that enforcement, not just app settings, backs those rights.