“There’s been a war on childhood coming from a million different directions,” said Robertson, who is the current Republican nominee for Alabama attorney general. “We recognize that parents and youth are fighting a battle against a bunch of different platforms. They’re manipulating kids to get addicted to their product, essentially.”
TikTok has agreed to pay Alabama at least $100 million to settle allegations that the popular social media platform misled parents about the effectiveness of the tools it uses to protect children from potentially harmful content.
According to The Guardian, Alabama officials have since described the proposed agreement as a “first-in-the nation settlement” with an individual state over how social media impacts teenagers’ mental health. The case had otherwise been scheduled for trial on Monday.
The terms of the agreement mirror those offered by competitor Meta, including a two-hour-per-day time limit for teenagers; restricted app access from midnight to 6am; and suspended notifications during regular school hours. TikTok also said that it will strengthen its age verification procedures, ban beauty filters for teenagers, and offer younger users the ability to scroll using a non-personalized content feed.
Speaking to The Associated Press, Katherine Robertson—the chief counsel in the Alabama Attorney General’s Office—acknowledged the similarity between the Meta settlement and the proposed TikTok deal.
“There’s been a war on childhood coming from a million different directions,” said Robertson, who is the current Republican nominee for Alabama attorney general. “We recognize that parents and youth are fighting a battle against a bunch of different platforms. They’re manipulating kids to get addicted to their product, essentially.”
In a press release, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall cast the settlement as “a great day” for parents across the state. “Tonight,” he said, “they can rest easier knowing real protections are in place to shield their children from the dangers of social media addiction.”
A spokesperson for TikTok said on Friday that the company’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. This builds on our commitment and core objective to continually enhance our robust safety tools to protect teens.”
TikTok, notes ABC News, has settled several similar lawsuits; the most notable was litigated in Los Angeles earlier this year. In that case, a jury found the many of the social-media defendants—including Meta and YouTube—had intentionally designed their platforms to keep young users engaged without regard for their mental health and overall well-being.
In August, TikTok also agreed to a $400 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, which had in 2024 accused the social media company of violating federal children’s privacy laws.
Sources
Jury finds Instagram and YouTube liable in a landmark social media addiction trial
TikTok settles Alabama lawsuit for at least $100M, will implement safety features
TikTok to pay Alabama $100m and limit teenage use in first state settlement
