TikTok will pay $400 million to end a lawsuit with the US Department of Justice. The department announced the deal on Friday. Officials say the app broke federal rules that protect children’s privacy online.
Governments across the world are cracking down harder on social media firms. Many companies now face tougher checks over how they handle kids’ data, privacy, and safety.
The settlement details
ByteDance is TikTok’s Chinese parent company. It sold most of its US shares earlier this year to dodge a ban from the Trump administration. ByteDance still holds a 19.9% stake in TikTok US, according to US media reports.
According to the Justice Department, TikTok must pay $300 million right away. It will pay another $100 million once a court cancels an older order. That order targeted Musical.ly, the app TikTok grew out of.
The department also said this counts as one of the biggest payouts ever collected under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, known as COPPA. COPPA stops websites from collecting data from kids under 13 without a parent’s okay.
The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission sued TikTok together back in 2024. They claimed TikTok put millions of children at risk by gathering their data without parental permission.
Google has also faced significant privacy settlements. In 2025, the company agreed to pay $1.375 billion to Texas to resolve claims that it unlawfully tracked users’ geolocation and collected biometric data without consent. The settlement followed earlier location-tracking fines: $391 million to 40 states in 2022, $29.5 million to Indiana and Washington in early 2023, and $93 million to California later that year.
The lawsuit claimed TikTok let kids use the app freely. At the same time, it collected and used their personal data without telling their parents. Even TikTok’s “Kids Mode,” built for users under 13, allegedly gathered email addresses and other personal details.
Musical.ly first faced a COPPA lawsuit in 2019. ByteDance bought the app in 2017 and later folded it into TikTok. TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.
An ABC News report from May said the Trump administration might use the settlement money for “beautification” projects. Those projects have included fixing up the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and renovating the White House ballroom. For now, it is not clear how the funds will actually be spent.
Global crackdown grows
The US settlement lands as pressure builds on TikTok worldwide. The European Union dug as far back 2024 into TikTok. It used the Digital Services Act, a strong tool the EU relies on to control large tech firms.
In July, the Union pointed fingers at TikTok for failing to guard children through weak account settings. Those settings can expose kids to dangers like cyberbullying and predators. TikTok now risks a heavy fine over the claims.
The EU said children’s accounts should stay private by default. Only people a child approves should see their account. TikTok allows users aged 13 and above to join the platform.
According to EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen, strong protection for kids should never be optional. She said it should come built in from the start, not added later as a choice.
Under EU rules, children’s accounts are supposed to carry the strongest safety settings automatically. The EU stated in its early findings that TikTok’s settings fall short of that bar. It said the settings leave young users’ accounts and posts open to too many people.
Wider scrutiny builds
Britain’s communications watchdog, Ofcom, launched its own investigation into TikTok in July. The probe will check whether TikTok meets UK rules meant to shield children from harmful content.
According to Ofcom, the investigation aims to find out if TikTok has broken, or is still breaking, its legal duties toward young users. The regulator said it plans to closely examine how TikTok verifies users’ ages.
Together, the US settlement and the EU and UK probes show a pattern. Regulators in several countries now watch TikTok closely over how it treats young users. The app remains under pressure to prove it protects children properly, both in how it verifies ages and how it manages account privacy settings.
