[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he US Justice Department has launched a lawsuit against TikTok, accusing the social media platform of violating children’s online privacy laws.
The complaint, filed in collaboration with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in a California federal court, alleges that TikTok and its China-based parent company ByteDance failed to comply with a federal law requiring parental consent before collecting personal information from children under 13.
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This legal action follows an investigation by the FTC into whether TikTok adhered to a previous settlement involving its predecessor, Musical.ly.
In 2019, the federal government sued Musical.ly for breaching the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by not informing parents about its data collection practices for children under 13. Musical.ly, acquired by ByteDance in 2017 and later merged with TikTok, agreed to a $5.7 million settlement and a court order to comply with COPPA.
The new lawsuit claims TikTok has knowingly allowed children to create accounts and retain their personal information without parental notification.
This includes accounts created in “Kids Mode,” a version of the app for children under 13.
The Justice Department and FTC allege that TikTok collected data on app activities and other identifiers, sharing this information with companies like Meta’s Facebook and AppsFlyer to re-engage less active users.
Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, stated,
“This action is necessary to prevent the defendants, who are repeat offenders and operate on a massive scale, from collecting and using young children’s private information without any parental consent or control.”
The complaint further alleges that TikTok allowed children to create accounts without providing their age or obtaining parental approval by using credentials from third-party services. These “age unknown” accounts have reportedly grown into millions.
Federal officials also claim that TikTok did not honour parental requests to delete their children’s accounts, leading to millions of children under 13 using the regular TikTok app, where they could interact with adults and access adult content.
TikTok has yet to respond to the allegations. The outcome of this lawsuit could significantly impact TikTok’s operations in the US, amidst ongoing legal battles concerning its presence in the country.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator and a recipient of the D9112 Superstar Icon Award, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
