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Short answer: The U.S. Justice Department sued TikTok, ByteDance and related companies on August 2, 2024, alleging violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and a 2019 court order involving TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly. The case is a civil enforcement action, not a criminal prosecution, and the allegations have not been proved. As of August 18, 2026, the case remained pending, with a jury trial listed for February 9, 2027.
What the Justice Department alleges
The DOJ filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission. The defendants are ByteDance Ltd., ByteDance Inc., TikTok Ltd., TikTok Inc., TikTok Pte. Ltd. and TikTok U.S. Data Security Inc.
According to the complaint and the government’s announcements, TikTok allegedly:
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- Collected, used and retained children’s personal information without the notice and verifiable parental consent required by COPPA.
- Failed to adequately identify and remove accounts known or reasonably believed to belong to children.
- Failed to delete children’s accounts and personal information after parents requested deletion.
- Collected and used more information than permitted through its child-oriented Kids Mode experience.
- Shared some Kids Mode information with third parties for purposes the government says went beyond permitted internal operations.
- Violated obligations imposed by a 2019 court order.
These are allegations in a pending case. The lawsuit itself does not establish that TikTok violated the law.
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How TikTok’s age screening is part of the case
The government’s theory is not limited to whether TikTok displayed an age gate. The complaint alleges that children could bypass age restrictions by using third-party credentials, including Google or Instagram logins.
The government also alleges that bypassed accounts could be classified as “age unknown” accounts and remain active unless a child explicitly admitted being under 13 or another removal condition applied. The FTC said the complaint described millions of such accounts, but that figure is the government’s characterization—not a finding that every account was conclusively confirmed to belong to a child.
The complaint further alleges that some human reviewers spent an average of five to seven seconds reviewing accounts for possible age violations and that internal tools failed to remove numerous accounts flagged as potentially belonging to children. Those details come from the government’s case and should not be treated as independently established facts before trial.
What COPPA requires
COPPA is a federal children’s privacy law focused on online services directed to children under 13, as well as services that have actual knowledge they are collecting personal information from children under 13. It is not a general privacy law for everyone under 18.
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In broad terms, COPPA requires covered services to:
- Provide parents with notice about their data practices.
- Obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting covered personal information, subject to the rule’s requirements and exceptions.
- Limit how children’s information is collected, used and disclosed.
- Give parents rights to review and request deletion of their children’s information.
The distinction matters. Privacy and safety concerns involving teenagers may raise other legal and policy questions, but this lawsuit centers on children under 13 and the requirements of COPPA.
Why Kids Mode did not automatically solve the issue
TikTok’s Kids Mode is a pared-back, child-oriented experience, but a restricted mode is not automatically a legal safe harbor. The government alleges that Kids Mode collected email addresses, persistent identifiers and other information; used activity data to build profiles; and, at least until mid-2020, shared some information with Facebook and AppsFlyer in connection with “retargeting less active users.”
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The FTC contends that some of those practices exceeded what COPPA permits for internal operations. The legal question is not simply whether a child saw fewer features. It also concerns what information TikTok allegedly collected, why it used the information, what it disclosed and how it handled parental controls and deletion requests.
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What parents’ deletion requests have to do with the lawsuit
COPPA concerns more than the initial collection of data. The complaint alleges that parents faced multiple, duplicative steps when requesting deletion of a child’s account and information.
The government also alleges that TikTok frequently failed to complete deletion requests. In some instances, employees allegedly recognized that TikTok had enough information to delete an account but still required parents to complete an additional form or process.
Those claims, if proven, would make the case partly about whether parents could exercise meaningful control after information had already been collected—not only about how TikTok handled age screening at sign-up.
How the case relates to Musical.ly’s 2019 settlement
The 2024 lawsuit follows a 2019 government case involving Musical.ly, the service that preceded TikTok. Musical.ly’s operators agreed to a court order requiring specific compliance measures related to children’s privacy.
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The DOJ now alleges that TikTok and related companies continued or repeated similar conduct despite that order. This gives the case an additional dimension: the government is not presenting the matter solely as a first-time failure to understand COPPA. It alleges that comparable problems occurred while obligations from the earlier case were in place.
An alleged breach of the 2019 order does not automatically mean TikTok owes a particular penalty. Liability and the appropriate remedies must still be determined through the court process.
Why both the FTC and DOJ are involved
The agencies have different roles:
- FTC: Investigated the conduct and referred the matter.
- DOJ: Filed and litigates the civil action on the FTC’s behalf.
- Federal court: Decides whether the allegations are proven and what relief, if any, is appropriate.
It is therefore more precise to say that the FTC investigated and referred the case, while the DOJ filed the lawsuit. The case is not a criminal prosecution.
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The government seeks a permanent injunction, civil penalties and other relief intended to prevent future COPPA violations. It also seeks enforcement of obligations connected to the prior court order.
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The FTC cited a maximum civil penalty of $51,744 per violation per day under the provision referenced in its 2024 announcement. That is a statutory maximum, not a fine already imposed on TikTok and not a prediction of the eventual award. The amount, if any, would depend on the court’s findings, the number and nature of violations and applicable law.
Possible court-ordered relief could also involve changes to age-screening systems, account-removal procedures, parental notices, data retention, deletion workflows and Kids Mode practices. The final scope cannot be known unless the case produces a judgment, settlement or other court resolution.
Has TikTok been found liable?
No. The DOJ and FTC have alleged violations, but there has been no final adjudication establishing liability in this case. TikTok has disputed the allegations and said that some claims are factually inaccurate or concern practices that have already been addressed. The court—not the filing announcement—will decide the merits.
Current status of the lawsuit
The case is ByteDance Ltd. et al. v. United States, case number 2:24-cv-06535, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
| Date | Development |
|---|---|
| August 2, 2024 | DOJ filed the complaint. |
| October 7, 2024 | Defendants filed an answer. |
| November 2024 | The court issued an order to show cause concerning possible consolidation with other cases; responses followed later that month. |
| February 9, 2027 | Jury trial date listed in an FTC federal-court status report. |
Status checked: August 18, 2026. The FTC case page listed the matter as pending at that time. Court schedules can change, and the case could be resolved before the listed trial date.
What parents should understand
- A platform’s “13+” policy does not prove that under-13 users cannot access the service.
- Kids Mode does not necessarily mean that no data is collected.
- Parents can use the platform’s privacy and deletion controls, but the lawsuit specifically challenges the adequacy and operation of those processes.
- Deleting an app from a phone does not necessarily delete the account or associated data.
The lawsuit also concerns a narrow legal framework. It does not establish that TikTok unlawfully collected data from every user under 18, nor does it decide separate national-security disputes involving TikTok and ByteDance.
What to watch next
The important developments will be court rulings on motions, any settlement or consent judgment, changes to the February 9, 2027 trial date, the scope of any injunction and whether the alleged breach of the 2019 order is addressed separately from the COPPA claims.
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