TikTok will pay Alabama at least $100 million (€87m) and impose new restrictions on teenage users, settling a child-safety lawsuit that was due to go to trial next week in the southern US state.
Alabama will receive a minimum of $100 million within 45 days, with the settlement potentially rising to $300 million if specified conditions are satisfied, the office of Attorney General Steve Marshall said.
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The trial was scheduled to open on Monday with jury selection.
Under the agreement, TikTok will set a two-hour daily limit for young users and block children from accessing the platform between midnight and 6am, alongside a range of additional parental controls and safety measures, Mr Marshall said.
The settlement follows other TikTok cases that were resolved before reaching trial, including a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles by a young woman and another brought by a Kentucky school district.
Meta, meanwhile, has defended several cases in court, with results that have varied.
In March, a New Mexico jury ordered the owner of Facebook and Instagram to pay $375m after concluding 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 during childhood. The jury awarded her $6 million.
In August, Meta agreed to pay $18 billion to settle a wide-ranging lawsuit filed by US states, which accused the company of designing Instagram and Facebook to foster addiction among children.
A trial in Alabama could have exposed TikTok’s internal approach to safety, including company documents and testimony from executives presented in open court.
Alabama sued TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, in April 2025, alleging that the app had been designed to keep young users engaged “just like a sophisticated gambling machine”.
The state later narrowed its claims to alleged violations of Alabama’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The case focused on whether TikTok had overstated the effectiveness of tools including “Restricted Mode” and “Kids Mode”.
In its complaint, Alabama said investigators created TikTok accounts posing as 13-, 14- and 15-year-olds in the state and activated Restricted Mode.
Although TikTok said users in that setting should be protected from mature themes, the accounts were quickly shown videos involving suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, alcohol and sex, according to the filing.
The state also alleged that TikTok had given app stores misleading information by saying the platform was appropriate for children aged 12 and above and featured only mild or occasional mature content.
TikTok, which transferred its US operations this year to a venture led by American investors, argued that the case should be put on hold and that Section 230, the federal law shielding online platforms from liability for user-generated content, protected it from the claims.
Asked about the settlement, a TikTok spokesperson said 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,” the spokesperson added.
