TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, will pay the US state of Alabama $100 million (£75.45 million) and introduce a series of measures to restrict children’s use of the platform under a settlement reached in a lawsuit.
The agreement was reached shortly before a jury trial was due to begin on Monday. It resolves allegations that TikTok was deliberately designed to make children addicted to its features, similar to numerous lawsuits filed against social media platforms, BBC reported.
Under the settlement, TikTok must introduce several new safety measures, including a two-hour daily usage limit for children, as well as restrictions during overnight hours and school hours.
The measures will apply only in Alabama, marking TikTok’s first settlement with a US state.
“We’re very pleased,” Katherine Robertson, chief counsel in the Alabama Attorney General’s Office, told the BBC in an interview.
She said the state had been in mediation with TikTok ahead of the trial and that the agreement reached represented Alabama’s final offer.
“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,” Robertson said.
The new time limits and usage restrictions are set to take effect immediately.
However, TikTok has up to a year to implement other changes included as part of the settlement, such as the establishment of age verification measures.
Many of the measures follow a framework established by an August settlement struck between social media rival Meta and 52 state Attorneys General.
TikTok has agreed to pay up to $300m to Alabama if conditions of the new settlement are not met. The $100m payment is due to the state within 45 days.
Other safety features demanded as part of the deal include a host of measures to allow parents to heavily moderate usage by their children, along with restrictions on some content, and new ways to verify the age of young users.
TikTok will also limit children’s accounts being discovered by adults, and notify parents to any “suspicious interactions” between teen users and adult users.
News.Az
By Nijat Babayev
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