On Friday, the United States filed a lawsuit accusing TikTok of violating children’s privacy by collecting their data without parental consent.
The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have teamed up in a civil suit alleging that TikTok breached the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
“TikTok knowingly and repeatedly violated kids’ privacy, jeopardizing the safety of millions of children nationwide,” said FTC Chair Lina Khan in a statement.
The law prohibits websites from collecting personal information about children under 13 without parental consent.
The lawsuit claims that since 2019, TikTok has allowed children to use the app, collecting and using their personal data without informing their parents.
It also argues that even accounts set up in “Kids Mode” for users under 13 gathered email addresses and other personal information.
TikTok and its parent company ByteDance frequently “failed to honor” requests from parents to delete their children’s accounts and data.
