TikTok has agreed to pay the state of Alabama $100 million and introduce new restrictions on how children use the platform, bringing a major lawsuit against the company to an end.
The settlement was reached shortly before the case was expected to go before a jury. Alabama had accused TikTok of using features that encouraged young users to spend excessive amounts of time on the platform and keep scrolling.
According to the BBC, the agreement is TikTok’s first settlement with a U.S. state. Alabama is expected to receive the $100 million payment within 45 days.
The financial consequences could become significantly larger if TikTok fails to meet the requirements of the agreement. The company and its parent company, ByteDance, could face up to another $300 million in penalties if they do not comply with the settlement terms.
For children using TikTok in Alabama, some of the changes take effect immediately. The platform must enforce a two-hour daily usage limit for minors, while access will also be restricted during overnight hours and school hours.
The settlement also gives TikTok up to a year to introduce additional requirements, including stronger systems for verifying users’ ages. The goal is to make it harder for younger users to get around restrictions designed to protect them.
The agreement also changes how adults can interact with and discover minors on the platform. Adults will face new restrictions when trying to find children’s profiles, while parents are expected to receive alerts about “suspicious interactions” between teenagers and adults.
Parents will also receive broader controls over their children’s TikTok activity. The settlement allows for additional restrictions on certain types of content and places a statewide ban on cosmetic filters for minors.
The measures represent a significant change in how TikTok will be required to manage young users in Alabama.
“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,” Katherine Robertson, chief counsel in the Alabama Attorney General’s Office, told the BBC.
TikTok, meanwhile, said the settlement builds on safety measures the company already has in place and its efforts to protect younger users.
“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,” a TikTok USDS spokesperson said. “This builds on our commitment and core objective to continually enhance our robust safety tools to protect teens.”
The Alabama settlement comes as TikTok continues to face scrutiny from governments around the world. The platform remains one of the largest social media services globally, but its operations have increasingly been examined over issues involving data, security and the protection of younger users.
TikTok has also faced restrictions on government-issued devices in several countries and regions, including the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and institutions within the European Union.
India took a much broader step by banning TikTok entirely in 2020. In mainland China, ByteDance operates a separate short-video platform called Douyin rather than TikTok.
The Alabama agreement adds another major regulatory challenge for TikTok as governments continue to examine how social media platforms affect children and how companies should be responsible for protecting young users.
For Alabama families, however, the most immediate impact will be the new rules governing how much time children can spend on TikTok, how adults can interact with minors and how parents can monitor their children's activity.
The settlement therefore goes beyond the $100 million payment, requiring TikTok to make lasting changes to the way its platform operates for young users in the state.
