…Platform to Pay Alabama $100m, Impose Two-Hour Daily Limit on Teens in First State Settlement
TikTok has agreed to pay the US state of Alabama at least $100 million and enact a series of restrictions for teenage users, settling a lawsuit over child safety on the platform just days before trial was set to begin.
CDA News Nigeria reports that under the settlement, Alabama will receive a minimum of $100 million within 45 days, with the potential to receive up to $300 million if certain conditions are met. The agreement resolves Alabama’s claims that TikTok designed its platform with addictive features, knowingly exposed young users to serious mental harms, and misled the public about the safety of its platforms.
CDA News Nigeria gathered that the settlement requires TikTok to implement several safety features, including a two-hour daily time limit for teens, with parental controls allowing parents to further restrict usage. The platform must also introduce “productive pauses” that interrupt teen users after 15 minutes of continuous use and again at 60 and 90 minutes to limit endless scrolling.
TikTok will restrict children’s access from midnight to 6:00 a.m., with restrictions on messaging and push notifications overnight and during school hours. The settlement also mandates robust age assurance measures, stronger content moderation provisions, limits on discoverability of teen accounts by adults, and a blanket prohibition on the use of cosmetic filters by teen users.
CDA News Nigeria gathered that the settlement mirrors a similar agreement reached between Meta and US states in August, which included comparable safety provisions. However, more than a dozen other states, including California and New York, still have active suits against TikTok.
A TikTok spokesperson said the company’s priority has always been fostering a safe and positive space for users, adding that the settlement “builds on our commitment and core objective to continually enhance our robust safety tools to protect teens”.
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