Alabama settles multi-million dollar lawsuit against TikTok

TikTok logo (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WAKA) – Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has announced a multi-million dollar settlement with TikTok, that requires the social media platform to restrict access to children.

Under the settlement, Alabama will receive a minimum of $100 million, due within 45 days, with the potential to receive up to $300 million if certain conditions are met.

In addition, TikTok must begin a list of safety features designed to protect children using its platform. Alabama’s lawsuit claimed that TikTok designed its platform with addictive features, knowingly exposed young users to serious mental harms and intentionally misled the public about the safety of its platforms.

This is a first-in-the-nation settlement meant to resolve Alabama’s case against TikTok, which was scheduled to go to trial Monday. Alabama would have been the first state to bring its claims against TikTok to trial.

“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. TikTok has agreed to give parents real control over what their kids see and how much time they spend on the app,” Attorney General Marshall said. “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.”

The settlement requires TikTok to implement a series of safety features, including:

• • A two-hour daily time limit, with parental controls that allow parents to further limit the amount of time their children spend on TikTok
  • “Productive pauses” that interrupt teen users after 15 minutes of continuous use and again at 60 and 90 minutes to limit endless scrolling
  • “Nighttime access” that restricts children’s access from 12:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m., plus restrictions on messaging and push notifications overnight and during school hours
  • Robust age assurance measures to more effectively verify the age of young users
  • Stronger content moderation provisions, including limits on discoverability of teen accounts by adults and parental notification of suspicious interactions between teen users and adults.
  • A blanket prohibition on the use of cosmetic filters by teen users
  • A default non-personalized feed for teen users
  • Stronger, more user-friendly parental controls

This is the most recent action that Marshall has taken to protect children using social media. Last month, he announced a multi-state settlement with Meta that resolved similar claims that will bring $117 million to Alabama. Marshall also previously announced a settlement with Roblox that requires stronger protections for children on the online gaming platform and secured $12 million in funding for School Resource Officers.

Marshall has also recently announced an investigation into OpenAI seeking accountability and understanding of the vulnerabilities that permitted its AI model to hack another American AI company unprompted.

— Information from the Office of Attorney General Steve Marshall