TikTok Sued by United States Justice Department for Violating Child Privacy Laws

The United States Department of Justice today sued TikTok and its parent company ByteDance for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). COPPA makes it illegal for websites to collect, use, and disclose data from children under the age of 13 without parental consent.

tiktok logo
The lawsuit [PDF] alleges that from 2019 on, TikTok has knowingly allowed children to create TikTok accounts and to create, view, and share videos and messages with adults and others on the TikTok platform. TikTok is accused of collecting and retaining personal information from children without consent from their parents. Data was collected even from accounts created in Kids Mode.

Millions of children under 13 have used the regular TikTok app, which the DoJ says has subjected them to "extensive data collection" and allowed them to "interact with adult users and access adult content." TikTok is also accused of making it difficult for parents to get their child's account and data deleted.

The Department of Justice is seeking civil penalties for every COPPA violation and injunctive relief that would prevent TikTok from continuing to collect data from children.

TikTok is already embroiled in a lawsuit with the U.S. government over a bill that requires the social network to be sold off to a non-Chinese company or face a ban in the United States. TikTok parent company ByteDance has until January 19, 2025 to find a buyer for TikTok, but a sale is unlikely because the Chinese government would need to approve the divestiture, and it has said that it would "firmly oppose" any effort to sell TikTok.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: TikTok

Popular Stories

Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock Light

iOS 19 Will Bring Biggest Design Overhaul Since iOS 7

Monday March 10, 2025 12:17 pm PDT by
Apple is planning for a major design overhaul of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac interfaces with the introduction of iOS 19, iPadOS 19, and macOS 16 later this year, reports Bloomberg. The update will "fundamentally change" the look of Apple's operating system, introducing a more consistent cross-platform experience. Apple plans to update the style of icons, menus, apps, windows, and system...
ios 18 4 carplay

Apple Upgrades CarPlay in Two Ways

Wednesday March 12, 2025 6:05 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 18.4 update for the iPhone includes a smaller but meaningful improvement for Apple's in-car iPhone mirroring system CarPlay. Specifically, CarPlay now shows a third row of icons, up from two rows previously. However, this change is only visible in vehicles with a larger center display. For example, a MacRumors Forums member noticed the change in a Toyota Tundra with a...
Apple One Apps Feature 2

Apple One's Best Plan Now Includes Two More Perks For Free

Monday March 10, 2025 6:40 am PDT by
Apple One allows you to subscribe to up to six Apple services for one discounted monthly price. There are three Apple One tiers: Individual, Family, and Premier. Over the last month, the highest-end ‌Apple One‌ Premier plan has gained two additional perks. Here is what Apple One Premier already included, for $37.95 per month:Apple Music Apple TV+ Apple Arcade Apple News+ Apple Fitness+...
airpods pro 2 gradient

AirPods Pro 3 Launch Now Just Months Away: Here's What We Know

Tuesday March 11, 2025 3:26 am PDT by
Despite being released over two years ago, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 continue to dominate the wireless earbud market. However, with the AirPods Pro 3 expected to launch in 2025, anyone thinking of buying Apple's premium earbuds may be wondering if the next generation is worth holding out for. Apart from their audio and noise-canceling performance, which are generally regarded as excellent for...
iOS 18

12 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.4

Monday March 10, 2025 9:28 am PDT by
Apple is set to release iOS 18.4 in early April, bringing further refinements to Apple Intelligence features, a neat new capability to iPhone 15 Pro devices, new emoji, and more. While not quite as packed with new features as Apple's preceding iOS 18 point releases, iOS 18.4 still introduces enhancements that aim to make your iPhone smarter and more intuitive. Below, we've listed 12 new...
iphone 17 mockups idevicehelp

Video Shows iPhone 17 Mockups Based on 'Internal Documents'

Monday March 10, 2025 4:41 am PDT by
YouTuber iDeviceHelp on Friday posted a video that shows off mockups of Apple's forthcoming iPhone 17 models that are purportedly based on "internal documents." We're sharing the video here since it was made in collaboration with leaker Majin Bu, who last month published similar iPhone 17 renders that were widely corroborated by separate leakers with links to Apple's Chinese supply chain....
iOS 18

iOS 18.3.2 Update Coming Soon for iPhones

Monday March 10, 2025 7:25 am PDT by
Apple employees are internally testing iOS 18.3.2 for iPhones, according to our website's visitor logs, which have been a reliable indicator of upcoming iOS versions. The software update should be released in the next week or two. iOS 18.3.2 will be a minor update that addresses software bugs and/or security vulnerabilities. Don't expect any new features. iOS 18.3.2 will be an interim...
Apple Maps vs Google Maps Feature

iOS 18.4 Adds a Highly-Requested Setting to iPhones — But Not in U.S.

Wednesday March 12, 2025 1:05 pm PDT by
iPhones are finally getting a much-requested setting, but availability is limited. The upcoming iOS 18.4 update introduces an option to set a default navigation app, other than Apple Maps, but unfortunately this new setting is limited to users in the EU. There, you can now set an app like Google Maps or Waze as your default navigation app on the iPhone by opening the Settings app and tapping ...
iOS 18

Apple Releases iOS 18.3.2 With Bug Fixes

Tuesday March 11, 2025 10:33 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 18.3.2 and iPadOS 18.3.2, minor updates for the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating systems that came out last September. iOS 18.3.2 and iOS 18.3.2 come a month after Apple released iOS 18.3.1 and iPadOS 18.3.1. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. According to Apple's release...

Top Rated Comments

justperry Avatar
8 months ago
All these social media apps are actually very anti social, ban all of them, especially for teenagers.
Score: 62 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Vulkan Avatar
8 months ago
I feel all social media should be 18+ only... No one under the age of 18 should have an account any of those sites. Social Media should be treated like *******.
Score: 48 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DTphonehome Avatar
8 months ago
I really wish they would just ban this app already.
Score: 38 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mr_Ed Avatar
8 months ago

All these social media apps are actually very anti social, ban all of them, especially for teenagers.
Yeah, I find it difficult to identify any redeeming value for any of them. I control how much time my son spends on his devices, what gets installed on his devices, web site access on his devices. Tiktok (and a few others) will not even DNS resolve in my home network. That may sound draconian to some, but being a teenager is already hard enough without all the other BS pressures introduced by social media.
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iMac The Knife Avatar
8 months ago
Like others have mentioned, I think all social media should be 18+, if not 21+. I've lived without it, then with it when it came along, and for the past four years I've lived without it again. I can tell you that I was and am a lot happier without it. To each their own though.
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Apple Knowledge Navigator Avatar
8 months ago
On the one hand, I see many people young and old using these platforms for good, but I believe if there’s an issue it’s that younger people in particular don’t understand what’s good for them in the long term.

To be clear, if someone had told me in the early-Nineties when I was young that I could own a device with all the capabilities that we know of today, I would have snatched at it like anyone else. A Game Boy was about the most advanced potable ‘toy’ one could own, but you’d be lucky to get 2 hours from the batteries, the games soon became repetitive, and there was no wider way to network on it. These inherent limitations meant the device was good purely for short bursts of fun.

But today, children are given monumenrally more advanced devices by adults with little or no regard for their welfare other than “We don’t want them to feel left out” in the company of their friends. So they’re shifting accountability and the child becomes responsible for how they manage their own behaviour on the device, despite not having emotional maturity or deep knowledge of how the broader world operates. Google search may as well be Pandora’s box.

What I see today with social media - and this is the saddening thing - is children using it to document lives that aren’t real. It’s this detachment from reality is worrying, because many of the ways that young people grow to become healthy adults is by taking an interest in the world right around them rather than the one that is fabricated on their phone. Social media in its worst form represents a ‘me me me’ culture where balanced discussions and criticism cannot take place, where egos are constructed, and where the darker side of peoples characters negatively impacts others.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)