The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Justice Department have filed a lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance, accusing them of violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). This law mandates that digital platforms must notify and obtain parental consent before collecting and using personal data from children under the age of 13.
In a press release issued Friday, the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection claimed that TikTok and ByteDance were “allegedly aware” of the requirement to comply with COPPA, yet spent “years” knowingly allowing millions of children under 13 to use their platform. The FTC alleges that TikTok continued this practice even after a 2019 settlement over COPPA violations, in which TikTok agreed to pay $5.7 million and implement measures to prevent children under 13 from signing up.
The FTC stated, “As of 2020, TikTok had a policy of maintaining accounts of children that it knew were under 13 unless the child made an explicit admission of age and other rigid conditions were met.” It was also alleged that TikTok human reviewers spent an average of only five to seven seconds reviewing each account to determine if it belonged to a child.
Despite concerns raised by employees, TikTok and ByteDance allegedly continued to maintain and use data from underage users, including for targeted ads. The FTC also noted that TikTok allowed users to sign up with third-party accounts, such as Google and Instagram, without verifying that they were over 13.
The FTC further criticized TikTok Kids Mode, which was supposed to be a more COPPA-compliant mobile experience. The FTC alleged that Kids Mode collected “far more data” than necessary, including information about users’ in-app activities and identifiers used to build profiles and shared with third parties to prevent user attrition.
Additionally, the FTC claimed that when parents requested their child’s accounts be deleted, TikTok often made the process difficult and failed to comply with those requests.
“TikTok knowingly and repeatedly violated kids’ privacy, threatening the safety of millions of children across the country,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement. “The FTC will continue to use the full scope of its authorities to protect children online — especially as firms deploy increasingly sophisticated digital tools to surveil kids and profit from their data.”
In response, TikTok stated via email: “We disagree with these allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed. We are proud of our efforts to protect children, and we will continue to update and improve the platform. To that end, we offer age-appropriate experiences with stringent safeguards, proactively remove suspected underage users, and have voluntarily launched features such as default screen time limits, Family Pairing, and additional privacy protections for minors.”
The FTC and Justice Department are seeking civil penalties up to $51,744 per violation per day and a permanent injunction to prevent future COPPA violations.
