US government accuses TikTok of violating child privacy laws

Video-sharing app Tiktok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance failed to stop children from joining the platform and unlawfully collected their personal data, the US Justice Department alleged in a lawsuit filed on Friday.

The department, with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), filed a civil lawsuit alleging violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.

The act prohibits website operators from knowingly collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children under the age of 13, unless they obtain consent from those children's parents.

It also requires website operators to delete personal information collected from children at their parents' request.

"The Justice Department is committed to upholding parents' ability to protect their children's privacy," said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton, head of the Justice Department's Civil Division.

"This action is necessary to prevent the defendants, who are repeat offenders and operate on a massive scale, from collecting and using young children's private information without any parental consent or control."

Tiktok said in a statement it disagreed with the allegations, stating many related to past events and practices that were factually inaccurate or had been addressed.

"We are proud of our efforts to protect children, and we will continue to update and improve the platform," the statement said.

"To that end, we offer age-appropriate experiences with stringent safeguards, proactively remove suspected underage users, and have voluntarily launched features such as default screentime limits, Family Pairing, and additional privacy protections for minors."

In 2019, TikTok agreed to pay $5.7 million to settle FTC allegations against its predecessor company, Musical.ly, concerning the collection of data from children under the age of 13 without parental consent.

TikTok is currently involved in a separate legal battle in the US over a proposed law that would force a change of ownership.