TikTok paid $400 million for child online privacy protection

On 21 August, local time, the United States Department of Justice announced a settlement agreement of $400 million with TikTok, byte beat and associated entities (collectively “TikTok”) to resolve the proceedings for compliance with the Child Online Privacy Protection Act and its implementing regulations (COPPA). Under the settlement agreement, TikTok would pay $300 million immediately and $100 million more after the court had revoked its previous consent order against the predecessor, Musical.ly. The settlement agreement is one of the largest amounts of compensation received so far in the COPPA case. This action began in August 2024. At that time, the United States Department of Justice and the United States Federal Trade Commission jointly prosecuted TikTok Inc., ByteDance Ltd. and its associated entities for allowing children to create regular TikTok accounts, knowing that the user was under the age of 13, and for collecting and maintaining personal information without notifying or obtaining parental consent. (First financial account)