The US Justice Department Sues TikTok for Violating Child Privacy Laws

• On Friday, the DoJ filed a lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and a 2019 agreement between the company and the FTC regarding child privacy matters.
• The company has been accused of letting underage users create a TikTok account without parental consent and collecting personal data.
• TikTok has denied these allegations and said that the company was very sincere about protecting its underage users.

TikTok has gotten in trouble with the US Justice Department once again, this time over violating children's privacy laws. The justice department filed a lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance this Friday.

In the suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the DoJ has accused TikTok of the following violations:

• The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
• A 2019 agreement between the company and the FTC over how it'll handle its young users (users under the age of 13)

Basically, TikTok has been allowing minors to create accounts on its platform without their parent's consent or knowledge and even upon discovery, those accounts were not deleted.

Plus, the company has also been collecting data from these accounts, including phone numbers, email addresses, device information, location data, and so on. Also, it might have shared these details with third parties without notifying the parents.

Last but not least, it also failed to comply with the requests from parents to delete their children's data. Even if a parent submitted a deletion request, the company often ignored it.

Is tikTok Doing Enough to Protect Children?

The company offers a Kids Mode" for users under 13 that comes with certain restrictions, especially on the type of content that's being displayed. However, children have been consistently creating an account on regular TikTok and the company has done absolutely nothing to stop them.

For example, if a child tried to sign up for an account on regular TikTok but got rejected after putting their age as 13, the company did nothing to stop them from trying a second time with a different birth date.

The lawsuit also claims that TikTok moderators barely spend 5 to 7 seconds reviewing an account to see whether it belongs to a child or not. Clearly, that's not enough.

So now with this lawsuit, the DoJ is basically asking for a court order to prevent future violations and civil penalties for past violations, in addition to anything the court decides as a just punishment.

The DoJ seems to be pressing hard on the TikTok issue. Just last week, it submitted a fresh report accusing TikTok of conducting surveys on sensitive topics like religion, abortion, and gun control in the US and sharing the results with China.

This is part of an ongoing investigation against TikTok after US lawmakers passed a bill that requires the company to sever ties with its parent, ByteDance by January 19, 2025. If it fails to do so, TikTok will be banned in the US.

What Does TikTok Have to Say About This Lawsuit?

Michael Hughes, a TikTok spokesperson, said that the company is proud of the efforts it has put in so far to protect children and will continue to update its platform with better security measures.

We disagree with these allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed.' - Michael Hughes

Speaking of its current safety standards, it said that the platform offers adequate age-appropriate content, and constantly keeps an eye on its users to ensure that minors are not coming in contact with inappropriate content.

If an underage account is found to be browsing regular TikTok, that account is removed immediately.

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