TikTok has agreed to pay Alabama at least $100 million to settle a state lawsuit accusing the company of building addictive features into its platform and targeting young users, according to the Alabama attorney general’s office.
The settlement, announced Friday, requires the payment to reach Alabama within 45 days. The state could receive up to $300 million total if certain conditions are met.
Alabama’s lawsuit accused TikTok of designing its platform to be addictive to young people, knowingly exposing them to mental harm, contributing to a teen mental health crisis, and misleading the public about the safety of its platform.
The case had been headed to trial in Montgomery state court, with proceedings set to begin Monday. Alabama would have been the first state to take its claims against TikTok before a jury.
New Safety Measures
As part of the settlement, TikTok agreed to roll out a series of changes meant to protect younger users, according to the attorney general’s office. Those include:
- A two-hour daily time limit for underage users, along with parental controls that let parents set even tighter restrictions.
- A ban on cosmetic filters.
- Restrictions on overnight use by children.
- “Productive pauses” that interrupt young users after 15 minutes of continuous use, and again at 60 and 90 minutes, to discourage endless scrolling.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said the agreement gives families real tools to manage how their children use the app.
“This is a great day for Alabama parents. Tonight, they can rest easier knowing real protections are in place to shield their children from the dangers of social media addiction,” Marshall said.
“TikTok has agreed to give parents real control over what their kids see and how much time they spend on the app. We’ve said from day one that our number one goal was to stand up for Alabamians when they are being harmed, and today, we did exactly that,” Marshall added.
The settlement closes out a case that had been building toward a high-profile trial in Montgomery, ending with a financial payout and a set of platform changes aimed specifically at protecting minors.
