DOJ Sues TikTok for Alleged Violations of Children’s Online Privacy Law

Washington — The Justice Department filed a federal lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance on Friday, alleging that the social media platform violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

In the suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the Justice Department alleged TikTok knowingly permitted children to create accounts and interact with adults on the platform since 2019. The company collected and retained personal information from the children without notifying or obtaining consent from their parents, the suit said.

“For years, defendants have knowingly allowed children under 13 to create and use TikTok accounts without their parents’ knowledge or consent, have collected extensive data from those children, and have failed to comply with parents’ requests to delete their children’s accounts and personal information,” the 31-page civil lawsuit said.

It added that TikTok “adopted and implemented inadequate and ineffective policies to stop children from creating general TikTok accounts and to remove those accounts when they were discovered.”

TikTok offers a “Kids Mode” for users who say they’re under 13. The version limits their interactions on the platform, including restricting messages with other users and the ability to create and upload videos. But the company does not notify parents or obtain consent for the restricted accounts, the suit said. The platform also allows users to easily bypass the age restrictions when creating their accounts, the department alleged.

“As a result, for years millions of American children under 13 have been using TikTok and defendants have been collecting and retaining children’s personal information,” the suit said.

The government asked the court for a permanent injunction against future violations of the child privacy law, civil penalties for past violations and “any additional relief as the Court determines to be just and proper.”

TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.