TikTok agrees to teenager limits in US settlement

TikTok on Friday agreed to pay Alabama at least US$100 million, and enact time limits and other restrictions for teen users, avoiding trial with a settlement modeled on Instagram owner Meta’s agreement with US states.

A trial had been set to begin tomorrow in the southern US state over claims by Alabama that TikTok misled parents about tools meant to shield children from harmful content.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall hailed the settlement as “a great day for Alabama parents.”

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall speaks to the media in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington on Oct. 4, 2022.

Photo: Getty Images via AFP

“Tonight, they can rest easier knowing real protections are in place to shield their children from the dangers of social media addiction,” he said.

Under the settlement, TikTok would send US$100 million to Alabama and could possibly pay up to US$300 million in total if other states accept similar agreements.

Alabama’s suit was the latest in a wave of litigation targeting social media companies across the US over the harm their apps allegedly cause young users.

Last month, Meta agreed to pay US$18 billion to settle a sweeping lawsuit brought by US states accusing it of designing Instagram and Facebook to get children addicted.

TikTok’s settlement with Alabama mirrors safety provisions agreed by Meta, including a two-hour daily time limit for teens, restricted access from midnight to 6am, and suspending notifications during school hours.

It would also strengthen age verification, ban beauty filters for teenagers and offer young users a non-personalized content feed.

In addition, it includes a conditional restriction that Meta also agreed to: expanding the nighttime shutdown period to 10pm to 7am, if other platforms also commit to do the same.

“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 company spokesperson said.

“This builds on our commitment and core objective to continually enhance our robust safety tools to protect teens,” the spokesperson added.

More than a dozen other states, including California and New York, still have active lawsuits against TikTok.

The company has previously settled cases against it that were headed for trial, including a Los Angeles lawsuit brought by a young woman and a suit from a Kentucky school district.

Meta has taken its chances in court — with bruising results.

In March, a jury in New Mexico ordered the Facebook and Instagram owner to pay US$375 million after finding it had misled the public about the safety of its platforms for children.

That same month, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google’s YouTube negligent in the case of a 20-year-old woman who said she became hooked on social media as a child, awarding her US$6 million.

Going to trial would have exposed TikTok to unprecedented public scrutiny of how it handles safety internally, with company documents and executive testimony potentially aired in open court.

Alabama originally sued TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, in April last year, saying that the app was engineered to hook young users “just like a sophisticated gambling machine.”

The state later narrowed its case to claims under Alabama’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act, focusing on whether TikTok misrepresented the effectiveness of features such as “Restricted Mode” and “Kids Mode.”

Despite TikTok’s assurances that users in that mode should not see mature themes, the accounts were quickly served videos about suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, alcohol and sex, the filing said.