The US Justice Department Sues TikTok for Violating Child Privacy Laws

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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:

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.

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.

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.