The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday sued TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance for allegedly breaking child privacy laws, accusing the companies of collecting personal information on children under the age of 13 without their parents’ consent.
The lawsuit comes after TikTok settled a previous legal dispute with the Federal Trade Commission in 2019 after the agency accused the social video app of violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. TikTok paid a civil penalty of $5.7 million. Since then, the Department of Justice said, TikTok has been under a court order to remain compliant with the act.
Advertisement“The Department is deeply concerned that TikTok has continued to collect and retain children’s personal information despite a court order barring such conduct,” said Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer in a statement. “With this action, the Department seeks to ensure that TikTok honors its obligation to protect children’s privacy rights and parents’ efforts to protect their children.”
TikTok in a statement said that it disputes the allegations, adding that many of the government’s complaints relate to past events or practices that have been addressed.
“We are proud of our efforts to protect children, and we will continue to update and improve the platform,” said TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek in a statement. “To that end, we offer age-appropriate experiences with stringent safeguards, proactively remove suspected underage users, and have voluntarily launched features such as default screentime limits, Family Pairing, and additional privacy protections for minors.”
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dollar penalty for a slew of data protection breaches including misusing children’s data. The Information Commissioner’s Office said Tuesday, April 4, 2023, that it issued a $15.9 milllion fine to the the short-video sharing app, which is wildly popular with young people. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File)" width="840" height="560" />
Congress last month passed a law that would ban the popular social video app in the United States unless Chinese owner ByteDance sells it.
The popular app, like other tech platforms, has options for children and adults.
Young people can join with a kids’ mode that limits what they can see. TikTok asks new users for their age when creating an account.
