Alabama becomes first US state to settle with TikTok over child-safety suit
TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have agreed to pay Alabama $100 million and impose new restrictions on children’s use of the platform in a settlement reached Friday, just before a jury trial was set to begin on Monday. The deal resolves a state lawsuit alleging that TikTok’s features were intentionally designed to addict children, and marks the platform’s first settlement with a US state.
The agreement requires the company to make a $100 million payment to Alabama within 45 days and exposes TikTok to additional penalties of up to $300 million if it fails to comply with the settlement’s conditions. The deal also installs operational changes that apply only within Alabama, including a two-hour daily usage limit for child users and blocks during overnight hours and school hours.
Alabama Attorney General’s office chief counsel Katherine Robertson told the BBC that the state had been in mediation with TikTok in the days leading up to the trial and that the agreement represented the state’s final offer. “We’re very pleased,” Robertson said. “This is very restrictive injunctive relief that’s going to require them to change a lot of the policies that we had identified as the culprits in what we call the war on childhood.”
The time limits and usage blocks take effect immediately, according to the settlement. Other provisions—including the establishment of age verification measures—give TikTok up to a year to implement. The company is also required to limit the discovery of children’s accounts by adult users, notify parents of suspicious interactions between teen and adult users, and impose a blanket ban on cosmetic filters for child accounts. The deal further requires new parental moderation tools and restrictions on certain content categories.
Many of the settlement’s safety measures follow a framework established by an August settlement between social media rival Meta and 52 state attorneys general.
A TikTok USDS spokesperson defended the company’s existing safety work, saying, “TikTok’s priority has always been fostering a safe and positive space where people can be creative, discover what they love, and connect with their community.” The spokesperson added, “This builds on our commitment and core objective to continually enhance our robust safety tools to protect teens.”
TikTok’s US business is now operated by a new group of investors who took control earlier this year, while ByteDance, the China-based parent company, remains a minority owner of the US joint venture. ByteDance was included in Friday’s settlement because of that continuing ownership stake, extending the agreement’s reach beyond the platform itself to its overseas parent.
The settlement is the first between TikTok and any US state and lands amid a broader wave of litigation against social media platforms over their effects on young users. The Alabama lawsuit alleged that TikTok’s features were designed to be addictive to children—a claim that mirrors suits filed against other major platforms.
The settlement’s restrictions apply only within Alabama, limiting the protections to children in the state. The case had been scheduled for a jury trial to begin Monday — three days after Friday’s settlement was reached — before the deal was struck.