Enacted to protect digital privacy, COPPA strictly prohibits websites and online services from gathering personal information from children under thirteen without explicit parental permission. Federal regulators asserted that TikTok allowed young children to use the application while saving and utilizing their personal data without notifying parents. According to the complaint, even accounts established under a designated “Kids Mode” designed for minor users collected email addresses and other personal details.
Regulators maintained that the platform's data practices placed millions of children at risk. The United States previously filed a COPPA-based lawsuit in 2019 against Musical.ly, an application that ByteDance acquired in 2017 before merging it into TikTok.
Global Regulatory Pressure on TikTok
The settlement in the United States unfolds alongside a broader international regulatory offensive against TikTok. In 2024, the European Commission initiated a formal investigation into the platform under the Digital Services Act, a primary legislative framework designed to regulate content and police major technology firms within the European Union. In July, the European Union formally accused TikTok of failing to protect minors adequately, pointing to default account configurations that allegedly expose young users to risks such as cyberbullying and predatory behaviors.
Under the Digital Services Act, minor accounts must feature the strictest default security protections. The European Union stated in a preliminary evaluation that TikTok’s account settings failed to meet this benchmark, leaving minor accounts and their content overly visible. Simultaneously, the communications regulatory body in the United Kingdom launched its own inquiry in July to examine whether the platform complies with local statutory obligations regarding the protection of minors from harmful content.
The platform is named alongside Meta, which operates Facebook and Instagram, as well as Snapchat and YouTube, in a sprawling multi-state litigation. Families, school districts, and a coalition of state attorneys general brought those lawsuits forward, alleging that major social media platforms actively contribute to the deterioration of adolescent mental health.
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