TikTok Pays Alabama 100M Dollars to Settle Youth Safety Lawsuit
TikTok has agreed to pay at least 1億米ドル to the state of Alabama to settle a lawsuit concerning youth safety measures, averting a trial that was scheduled to begin on September 28. The agreement forces strict limitations on American teenage users, including a daily usage cap of two hours, a mandatory overnight lock from midnight to 6 a.m., and restricted access to beauty filters.
The legal resolution stems from a lawsuit filed by Alabama in April 2025. Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office accused TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, of providing misleading information to parents regarding the effectiveness of tools designed to limit children’s exposure to harmful content. Court records from the litigation revealed that despite protection modes intended to limit adult content, test accounts were still served videos related to suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, alcohol, and sex.
Settlement Terms and Youth Restrictions Imposed on US Teens
Under the terms of the agreement, teenage users on the platform face a series of hard platform restrictions. Daily app usage is capped at two hours, and notifications during school hours will be paused. Access to the platform is cut off entirely between midnight and 6 a.m.
The platform is also required to enhance age verification checks, prohibit teenagers from using beauty filters, and supply a non-personalized news feed that operates independently of user preference algorithms. If other platforms adopt similar agreements, the total financial settlement could scale up to 3億米ドル, and the mandatory overnight lock could be extended from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. These regulatory parameters mirror many of the safety guardrails previously accepted by Meta in separate legal agreements.
Legal Status and Pending State Lawsuits
The Alabama resolution marks a significant turning point in a broader wave of legal conflicts targeting social media companies across the United States. More than 10 other states, including California and New York, currently maintain active lawsuits against TikTok over the platform’s design and its impact on young users.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall welcomed the agreement, stating that the new measures help strengthen the protection of children from risks associated with excessive social media use. Meanwhile, a TikTok spokesperson told AFP that the company’s priority is building a safe, positive space for users to discover content and connect with communities, emphasizing that the agreement aims to continually strengthen safety tools designed for teenagers.
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