The U.S. Department of Justice today sued TikTok and its parent company ByteDance for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which makes it illegal for websites to collect, use, or disclose data from children under the age of 13 without parental consent.
The lawsuit (PDF) alleges that since 2019, TikTok has knowingly allowed children to create TikTok accounts and create, view, and share videos and messages with adults and others on the TikTok platform. TikTok is accused of collecting and storing personal information from children without parental consent. Data was also collected from accounts created in Kids Mode.
Millions of children under the age of 13 used the regular TikTok app, which the DoJ says forced “extensive data collection” on children and allowed them to “interact with adult users and access adult content.” TikTok has also been accused of making it difficult for parents to delete their children’s accounts and data.
The Justice Department is seeking civil penalties for violating COPPA and an injunction preventing TikTok from continuing to collect children’s data.
TikTok is already fighting a lawsuit with the U.S. government over a bill that would require the social network to be sold to a non-Chinese company or banned in the U.S. TikTok parent company ByteDance has until January 19, 2025, to find a buyer for TikTok, but the Chinese government must approve the transfer, making a sale unlikely, and it has said it will “strongly oppose” any efforts to sell TikTok.
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