TikTok Agrees New Teen Safety Rules in Alabama

TikTok has agreed to pay Alabama at least $100 million and introduce stricter rules for teenage users, avoiding a trial over claims that it failed to protect children from harmful content.

A trial was due to begin on Monday after Alabama accused the social media company of misleading parents about safety tools designed to protect children.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall described the settlement as “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,” he said.

Under the agreement, TikTok will pay Alabama $100 million. The company could eventually pay as much as $300 million if other US states agree to similar settlements.

The case is part of a growing number of lawsuits against social media companies in the United States over the alleged harm their platforms cause young users.

New rules for teenage users

The settlement requires TikTok to introduce several measures aimed at limiting teenagers’ use of the platform.

Teenagers will face a two-hour daily time limit and will be blocked from accessing the app between midnight and 6am.

TikTok will also stop sending notifications to teenagers during school hours.

The company has agreed to strengthen its age-verification system and ban beauty filters for teenage users.

Teenagers will also be offered a non-personalised feed, meaning TikTok will not use their personal information to tailor the videos they see.

The agreement also contains a conditional rule that could extend the nighttime restriction to between 10pm and 7am if other social media platforms introduce the same measure.

TikTok said it remained committed to protecting young users.

“TikTok’s priority has always been fostering a safe and positive space where people can be creative, discover what they love, and connect with their community,” a company spokesperson told AFP.

“This builds on our commitment and core objective to continually enhance our robust safety tools to protect teens,” the spokesperson added.

More lawsuits against TikTok

More than a dozen other US states, including California and New York, still have active lawsuits against TikTok.

The company has previously settled other cases that were heading for trial, including a lawsuit brought by a young woman in Los Angeles and another filed by a school district in Kentucky.

Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, has taken several of its cases to trial, with mixed results.

In March, a jury in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $375 million after finding that the company had misled the public about the safety of its platforms for children.

That same month, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google’s YouTube negligent in a case brought by a 20-year-old woman who said she became addicted to social media as a child. She was awarded $6 million.

A trial in Alabama could also have exposed TikTok to intense public scrutiny over how it handles child safety, including internal company documents and testimony from executives.

Alabama first sued TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, in April 2025.

The state initially alleged that TikTok was designed to make young users addicted to the app “just like a sophisticated gambling machine”.

Alabama later narrowed its case to claims under the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

The case focused on whether TikTok had misled parents about the effectiveness of safety features such as “Restricted Mode” and “Kids Mode”.

According to the state’s court filing, TikTok assured parents that users in those modes would not see mature content.

However, the filing alleged that accounts using the features were quickly shown videos involving suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, alcohol and sex.