Topline
The Justice Department is asking a federal court to fine TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, in a lawsuit filed Friday that accuses the company of knowingly allowing children under the age of 13 to sign up for the app and collecting children’s personal data without permission from their parents.
The TikTok logo is displayed on a mobile phone.
Key Facts
Millions of Americans under the age of 13 have created and used TikTok accounts without their parents’ consent, according to the lawsuit, and the platform did not delete those accounts and associated personal information when asked by the childrens’ parents, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit claims the practices violate the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and a 2019 agreement struck between the Federal Trade Commission and TikTok in which the app agreed to destroy personal information of users under the age of 13 and delete the accounts of anyone whose age could not be verified.
TikTok has, instead, allowed those under 13 to create “Kids Mode” accounts, which still provide some personal information on the users, without notifying parents or getting permission, the Justice Department claims in the complaint, filed with the federal court for the Central District of California.
The app also makes it easy for people to lie about their age, the lawsuit claims, by allowing them to create “age unknown” accounts or to re-start the sign up process with a new birthday if the app initially tries to open a Kids Mode account because the first birthday entered showed an age under 13.
The Justice Department asked the court to create a new permanent injunction barring TikTok from violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act in the future and fine TikTok an unspecified amount for violating data laws surrounding children, as courts in the Netherlands, Ireland and the United Kingdom have done.
TikTok spokesperson Michael Hughes told Forbes the company disagrees with the allegations, “many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed.”
“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,” Hughes’ statement said.
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Crucial Quote
“Defendants and their employees have long known that children misrepresent their ages to pass through TikTok’s age gate, and that despite other measures purportedly designed to remove children from the platform, children are ubiquitous,” the lawsuit reads.
Big Number
$5.7 million. That’s how much TikTok was fined in 2019 when it struck its deal with the FTC and agreed to remove videos made by children under the age of 13. It also agreed the agency could continue running compliance investigations, one of which led to the lawsuit filed Friday.
Key Background
Concerns around privacy and user data have swirled around TikTok for years, and have led many lawmakers to call for the app to be banned in the United States. The social media platform has raised national security and privacy concerns, including fears the Chinese government could force ByteDance to hand over U.S. users’ data. When Donald Trump was president, he issued an executive order demanding that ByteDance sell TikTok within 45 days or face a ban. The measure was blocked by multiple federal judges and President Joe Biden revoked the order in 2021. In December of 2022, Biden banned the app on most government devices. Earlier this year, the House of Representatives and the Senate passed a bill that said ByteDance needs to sell TikTok within the year or it will be banned in the U.S. Biden signed the bill in April.
Further Reading
Mary Roeloffs is a Forbes reporter who covers breaking news with a frequent focus on the entertainment industry, streaming, sports news, publishing, pop culture and climate change. She joined Forbes in 2023 and lives in Dallas. She’s covered Netflix’s hottest documentaries, a surge of assaults reported on social media, the most popular books of the year and how climate change stands to impact the way we eat. Roeloffs was included on Editor & Publisher Magazine’s “ 25 Under 30” list in 2023 and worked covering local news in the greater Boston area from 2017 to 2023. She graduated with a double major in political science and journalism from Northeastern University. Follow Roeloffs for continued coverage of streaming wars, pop culture news and trending topics.
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