Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the lawsuit. suit About TikTok, alleging that the company violated the state’s new children’s privacy law. This will be the first test of Texas’ Safeguarding Children Online through Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act, which went into effect a month ago.
The law, part of which was struck down by a federal judge, would require social media platforms to verify the age of young users and provide parental controls, including the ability for parents to opt out of collecting their children’s data.
Paxton claims TikTok’s existing parental controls aren’t enough. “However, Defendants do not provide parents or guardians of users known to be between the ages of 13 and 17 with parental tools that would allow them to control or limit most of the personal information and account settings of known minors.” main. “For example, parents or guardians do not have the ability to control Defendants’ sharing, disclosure, and sale of personally identifiable information of known minors, nor do they have the ability to control Defendants’ ability to display targeted advertising to known minors.”
The lawsuit also claims the app’s “family pairing” tool is not “commercially reasonable” because it requires parents to create their own TikTok accounts and teens are free to deny their parents’ requests to set up the monitoring tool. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment. app already banned Ads most targeted to users under 18.
“We strongly disagree with these claims and, in fact, provide strong protections for youth and parents, including family connections. All content is public,” the company said in a statement. on. “We support the protections we provide to families.”
The lawsuit adds to TikTok’s growing legal troubles in the United States. The company is currently fighting legislation in the US that could ban the app entirely. It also faces a separate Justice Department lawsuit related to children’s privacy.
Update, October 3, 2024, 8:05 PM ET: This story has been updated to add a statement from TikTok.
