TikTok to Pay Alabama $100 Million in Teen Safety Settlement

TikTok has agreed to pay the US state of Alabama at least $100 million and introduce new safety restrictions for teenage users, settling a lawsuit days before a trial was due to begin, Alabama's attorney general said on 26 September.¹²

Avoiding trial

According to the Guardian, Alabama had been due to go to trial over allegations that TikTok gave parents false assurances about tools designed to protect children from harmful content. Alabama first filed suit against TikTok and ByteDance in April 2025, arguing the app was designed to hook young users "just like a sophisticated gambling machine." Its case was subsequently narrowed to allegations under the state's Deceptive Trade Practices Act, centring on whether TikTok overstated how effective its Restricted Mode and Kids Mode features actually were.¹

According to the Guardian and Deutsche Welle, the suit further claimed TikTok wrongly asserted that it restricts young users' exposure to sexual and violent material, and that it gave users inaccurate information about the Chinese government's access to American users' data. TikTok had countered that Section 230 protects online platforms from being held responsible for content posted by their users.¹²

New safety measures

Under the settlement, TikTok agreed to enact a two-hour daily time limit for teenage accounts, restrict child access overnight, and pause use after fifteen minutes, according to Deutsche Welle. The Guardian reported that the deal mirrors safety provisions Meta adopted, including restricted access from midnight to 6am and suspended notifications during school hours.²¹

The Guardian reported that the agreement further calls for tighter age-verification checks, a prohibition on beauty filters for teen accounts, and the option of a feed that isn't personalised. A conditional provision would expand the overnight shutdown to 10pm–7am if other platforms also commit to similar restrictions. Per Deutsche Welle, TikTok also committed to letting parents oversee both the content their children view and the amount of time they spend on the app.¹²

Wider litigation landscape

The Guardian characterised Alabama's lawsuit as one more entry in a growing string of legal actions against social media firms nationwide. Deutsche Welle reported that upwards of a dozen states, among them California and New York, currently have unresolved cases against TikTok, while 27 states plus Washington DC have filed comparable suits. TikTok has a track record of resolving lawsuits shortly before they reached court, among them one filed in Los Angeles and another by a school district in Kentucky.¹²

The Guardian reported that Meta struck an $18 billion settlement in August over claims from US states that it built Instagram and Facebook to be addictive to children, though Deutsche Welle cited a figure of $17 billion covering 47 states and territories. Meta has additionally lost cases in court: a New Mexico jury in March required the company to pay $375 million for deceiving the public about child safety on its platforms, and separately a Los Angeles jury deemed both Meta and Google's YouTube negligent, granting $6 million to a 20-year-old woman who said the platforms left her addicted to social media in her youth.¹

TechCrunch reported that, in a separate matter, TikTok agreed in August to pay the US Department of Justice $400 million to resolve claims it broke laws protecting children's privacy.³

Reactions

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, who sued TikTok last year, called the settlement "a great day for Alabama parents." He said parents "can rest easier knowing real protections are in place to shield their children from the dangers of social media addiction," and that TikTok had agreed "to give parents real control over what their kids see and how much time they spend on the app."¹²

A TikTok spokesperson said the company'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," adding that the settlement "builds on our commitment and core objective to continually enhance our robust safety tools to protect teens."¹