TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, have agreed to pay 400 million dollars to settle a US Department of Justice lawsuit over the app’s collection of children’s data in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

The Justice Department sued TikTok in 2024 on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission. The lawsuit alleged that TikTok allowed millions of children under 13 to create accounts without their parents’ consent. According to the department, this made it difficult for parents to ask TikTok to delete their children’s accounts.

For several years, TikTok and Beijing-based ByteDance have faced political and regulatory pressure in the US. Concerns over national security have threatened the app’s future in the country.