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The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission<\/a> sued social media platform TikTok and its parent company ByteDance Ltd. on Friday, accusing<\/a> the wildly popular app of collecting and retaining personal information about millions of children under the age of 13.<\/p>\n According to the complaint, TikTok has knowingly let kids make accounts<\/a> on the social media platform, make and share videos, and communicate and interact with adults. Moreover, DOJ said, TikTok didn\u2019t delete children\u2019s accounts even after parents asked it to. The government is seeking to \u201cput an end to TikTok\u2019s unlawful massive-scale invasions of children\u2019s privacy,\u201d the complaint states.<\/p>\n \u201cTikTok knowingly and repeatedly violated kids\u2019 privacy, threatening the safety of millions of children across the country,\u201d said FTC Chair Lina Khan. \u201cThe FTC will continue to use the full scope of its authorities to protect children online \u2014 especially as firms deploy increasingly sophisticated digital tools to surveil kids and profit from their data.\u201d<\/p>\n Authorities said the Children\u2019s Online Privacy Protection Act (Coppa) bans website and app operators from gathering information like email addresses and preferences from children younger than 13, unless the companies have express permission from parents. Congress enacted Coppa in 1998 to protect children younger than 13 from having their personal information retained by websites. The law applies to any website or online service directed at children, the complaint states. The U.S. sued TikTok predecessor Musical.ly in 2019 for violating Coppa provisions and fined it $5.7 million. The government also ordered the company to destroy personal information of users under 13. ByteDance Ltd. bought Musical.ly in 2018, merged it with TikTok and renamed in TikTok Ltd. Despite the merger, the company still had to comply with the 2019 court order, DOJ said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe Department is deeply concerned that TikTok has continued to collect and retain children\u2019s personal information despite a court order barring such conduct,\u201d said acting associate attorney general Benjamin C. Mizer. \u201cWith this action, the Department seeks to ensure that TikTok honors its obligation to protect children\u2019s privacy rights and parents\u2019 efforts to protect their children.\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement to Fortune<\/em>, a TikTok spokesperson denied the accusations.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe disagree with these allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed,\u201d said the spokesperson in an email. \u201cWe are proud of our efforts to protect children, and we will continue to update and improve the platform. 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.\u201d<\/p>\n ByteDance is estimated to be worth $225 billion<\/a>, and as of 2024 there were north of 170 million people using TikTok in the U.S., the complaint states. In 2022, 61% of teenagers who reported using TikTok were 13 or 14 years old.<\/p>\n The FTC noted that TikTok\u2019s own employees raised red flags about internal policies. After kids\u2019 accounts weren\u2019t deleted, a compliance staffer said, \u201cWe can get in trouble \u2026 because of COPPA.\u201d<\/p>\n The complaint states that these communications, from a September 2021 online chat, were aware of the problem and thought it might have been ongoing since as far back as July 2020. Another employee, in the online chat, said she encountered the issue frequently.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI run across usually like 3-4 accounts [like that] a day.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n CEO Daily provides key context for the news leaders need to know from across the world of business. Every weekday morning, more than 125,000 readers trust CEO Daily for insights about\u2013and from inside\u2013the C-suite. Subscribe Now<\/a>.<\/div>\n\nRecommended Newsletter:<\/strong><\/p>\n