TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance have agreed to pay $400 million (£293 million) to settle a US lawsuit over allegations that TikTok unlawfully collected personal information from children under 13.
The companies have not admitted to wrongdoing.
The agreement is one of the largest settlements of its kind and comes as social media companies face growing scrutiny around the world over how they protect younger users.
Why is TikTok paying $400 million?
The case dates back to 2024, when the US Department of Justice (DoJ) sued TikTok and ByteDance over allegations that they had collected personal information from millions of children under 13 without obtaining the required parental consent.
This isn’t TikTok’s first child privacy case.
In 2019, Musical.ly — the app that became TikTok — agreed to pay $5.7 million to settle allegations from the US Federal Trade Commission that it had illegally collected personal information from children.
Why age checks matter
One of the important issues running through the case is how a social media platform actually knows how old somebody is. That question is being asked far beyond the United States.
Here in the UK, age assurance is becoming a major part of the debate around children’s online safety. The government plans to ban under-16s from accessing major social media platforms from spring 2027, which means platforms will need effective ways of distinguishing younger users from adults. And TikTok is already facing scrutiny.
In July, Ofcom opened an investigation into whether TikTok is doing enough to protect children from harmful content, including whether its methods for identifying younger users are sufficiently effective. The investigation is ongoing.
The challenge is finding age checks that actually work without unnecessarily compromising everyone’s privacy.
Child safety is becoming a much bigger issue for social media
TikTok isn’t alone in facing questions about how social media companies treat younger users. Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, is facing major litigation in the United States over child safety, privacy and allegations around addictive platform design.
Earlier this month, Meta was ordered to pay a further $567 million in a New Mexico child safety case, taking the total it has been ordered to pay in that case to $942 million. Meta disputes the findings and is appealing.
Today, governments and regulators are asking questions about how platforms work — from recommendation algorithms and infinite scrolling to age checks, data collection and contact between children and strangers.
Could people in the UK be due compensation?
The $400 million TikTok settlement relates to US litigation and does not automatically mean users in the UK are entitled to compensation. However, if a similar claim emerges in the UK, we’ll let you know.
For now, at least one UK law firm is investigating whether people who were harmed by social media as children could have grounds to seek compensation in the UK. There are also potential claims over whether Facebook unfairly profited from your data, and the 2025 Discord data breach.
At Join the Claim, we’re tracking developments around social media safety, children’s privacy, platform design and potential legal action in the UK. Visit our Social Media Safety & Online Harms information hub for the latest developments.
If you or your child experienced problems linked to excessive social media use, you can also find out more about the potential Social Media Addiction Claim and register to stay informed.
Join the Claim connects consumers with SRA-regulated lawyers. Visit the claim page to check your eligibility if a claim is open with one of our trusted legal partners. If a group action has not yet been launched, you can register your interest and we’ll keep you informed if a partner firm decides to take a claim forward.
