TikTok Settles Alabama Teen Safety Case, Agrees to Usage Limits

Alabama has reached a settlement with TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, resolving allegations that the platform endangered minors and misled consumers about its safety features. The agreement, announced on Friday, arrives just days before a trial was set to begin in Montgomery state court.

Under the terms, TikTok will introduce several changes for teenage users in Alabama, including a two-hour daily time limit, prompts to pause after 15 minutes of continuous use, and more stringent age-verification measures.

The company will pay Alabama a minimum of $100 million. That figure could rise to $300 million if 40 other attorneys general enter into similar agreements with TikTok within a set period.

"This builds on our commitment and core objective to continually enhance our robust safety tools to protect teens," a spokesperson for TikTok's US operations said.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, who filed the suit last year, called the outcome "a great day for Alabama parents." At least 27 other states and Washington, D.C., have brought comparable lawsuits against the company.

The settlement marks TikTok's first with a state in the broader litigation over social media's effects on teen well-being. It also means the company has now resolved all cases selected for trial against it, including claims brought by five young people and a Kentucky school district.

Alabama's complaint had alleged that TikTok's endless video feed makes it the most addictive social media platform, and that its algorithm steers young users toward increasingly intense content about violence and self-harm. The state claimed this contributed to a teen mental health crisis and caused emergency room visits for self-harm to "skyrocket."

The lawsuit further accused TikTok of falsely claiming it restricts sexual and violent content for minors to secure a teen-safe rating in app stores run by Google, Apple and Microsoft, and of misleading users about Chinese government access to US user data. TikTok has maintained that teen safety was a priority in its design and argued that Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act shields platforms from liability over user-generated content.

Alabama also alleged that TikTok's age self-reporting is easily evaded, since users can view videos without creating an account, rendering tools like "Kids Mode" ineffective. The state said the platform traps children in "filter bubbles," feeding them progressively more intense material.

Beyond the state cases, TikTok faces thousands of lawsuits from individuals, school districts and municipalities over its alleged impact on young users' mental health. Meta Platforms, Snap Inc and Alphabet's YouTube are co-defendants in many of those actions.

Last month, Meta reached a $17.1 billion settlement with 47 states, Washington, D.C., and US territories, agreeing to change teens' access to Instagram and Facebook without admitting wrongdoing. That deal conditioned $5 billion of the payout on TikTok, Snap and YouTube adopting similar terms.

Like the Meta agreement, Alabama's deal would require TikTok to adopt additional restrictions if its rivals Snap, Google and Meta make comparable changes. Those measures could further limit teens' time on social media apps and restrict overnight access, according to the filing.

While the settlement applies only in Alabama, implementing major platform changes on a state-by-state basis could prove difficult.