Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched a lawsuit against TikTok, alleging the firm violated the state’s new child privacy statute. It will be the first test of Texas’ Securing Children Online Through Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act, which went into force a little over a month ago.
Under the rule, which a federal judge partially overturned, social media firms are supposed to verify the ages of younger users and provide parental control tools, such as the opportunity for parents to opt their children out of data collecting.
Paxton alleges that TikTok’s existing parental control features are insufficient. “However, Defendants do not provide the parents or guardians of users known to be 13 to 17 years old with parental tools that allow them to control or limit most of a known minor’s privacy and account settings,” the lawsuit states.
“For example, parents or guardians cannot control Defendants’ sharing, disclosing, and selling of a known minor’s personal identifying information, nor control Defendants’ ability to display targeted advertising to a known minor.”
The lawsuit also argues that the app’s “Family Pairing” tool isn’t “commercially reasonable” because it requires parents to make their own TikTok account and because teens are free to deny their parents’ requests to set up the monitoring tool.
TikTok didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The app already prohibits most targeted advertising to anyone younger than 18.
“We strongly disagree with these allegations and offer robust safeguards for teens and parents, including family pairing, all of which are publicly available,” the company said in a statement shared on X. “We stand by the protections we provide families.”
The lawsuit adds to TikTok’s mounting legal issues in the United States. The corporation is presently challenging a law that could lead to the app’s total ban in the United States. It is also facing a second Justice Department complaint regarding child privacy.
