New Delhi, Aug. 22 -- TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance have agreed to pay $400 million to settle US Justice Department allegations that the short-video platform violated children's online privacy laws.

The Justice Department sued the companies in 2024, accusing them of failing to adequately protect children's privacy and unlawfully collecting personal information from users under the age of 13. The case centred on allegations that TikTok and ByteDance breached a US law requiring online services aimed at children to obtain parental consent before collecting their personal data.

Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said the department's priority "is ensuring that children are protected online and that companies entru...