The US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against ByteDance and TikTok for violating COPPA.
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act does not allow websites to disclose, use, and collect data on users aged 13 and below without the consent of their parents. The lawsuit states that since 2019, the company has allowed children to share, view, and create videos as well as messages with adults on the platform. Furthermore, TikTok is said to retain and collect personal information from its users without having their parents agree to it. The DOJ claims that data was collected even in Kids Mode.
In the US, there are millions of children with TikTok accounts, which DOJ said ‘subjected them to extensive data collection’ The short-form video platform was also accused of making it hard for parents to delete their children’s data and accounts. The DOJ’s aim is to collect penalties for each violation and action that would stop data collection on children.
