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TikTok settles lawsuit with Alabama for at least $100 million, will implement safety features · Best of: Features

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  TikTok settles lawsuit with Alabama for at least one hundred million dollars,
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  will implement safety features Written by Caitlin Huamani. This article
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  is being read by an automated voice generated by Everlett. TikTok will
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  pay the state of Alabama at least one hundred million dollars, and
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  must implement a slew of safety features for teens in the state
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  as part of a settlement agreement reached just before the case was
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  set to go to trial. Alabama sued the social media company in
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  2025, claiming that the platform had negative effects on the mental well-being
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  of youths. The lawsuit argued that TikTok's addictive properties, namely its algorithm
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  that curates highly specific content catered to users interests, were harmful to
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  children, and that the company knew of those harms. Through the settlement,
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  TikTok will make several platform level changes for teen users in Alabama
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  including the option for teens to select a non personalized content feed.
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  The
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  platform will also bar cosmetic procedure filters for teens, implement a two
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  hour daily time limit, and ban nighttime use from midnight to six
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  AM. Young users in Alabama will also be prompted to take a
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  productive pause after fifteen minutes of continuous use, and again at sixty
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  and ninety minutes. In addition to the platform changes TikTok will pay
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  Alabama 100 million in restitution and remediation, which will likely go toward
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  funding youth mental health services and other programs. If enough other states
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  reach qualifying settlements with TikTok within a specific time frame, Alabama could
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  receive up to an additional one eighty three point eight million dollars.
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  The platform level changes outlined in the settlement agreement are roughly similar
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  to changes Meta agreed to make when it reached a settlement this
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  summer to resolve similar claims that were filed by nearly every state,
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  including Alabama. Meta had called on TikTok and its other chief competitor,
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  YouTube, to join it in adopting similar standards, but TikTok had not
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  publicly responded. Catherine Robertson, Chief Counsel in the Alabama Attorney General's office,
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  and the Republican nominee to be the state's next attorney general, acknowledged
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  the similarities with the Meta Agreement and told the Associated Press on
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  Friday There's been a war on childhood coming from a million different
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  directions. We recognize that parents and youth are fighting a battle against
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  a bunch of different platforms, Robertson said. They're manipulating kids to get
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  addicted to their product, essentially. The settlement also outlines more robust and
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  user-friendly parental controls, stronger age verification measures TikTok must take, and stronger
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  content moderation protocols. Been accounts will also be set to private by
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  default. Spokesperson for the TikTok USDS joint venture said Friday in a
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  statement that TikTok's priority has always been fostering a safe and positive
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  space where people can be creative, discover what the love and connect
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  with their community. This builds on our commitment and core objective to
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  continually enhance our robust safety tools to protect teens. Alabama would have
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  been the first state to argue its claims against TikTok in front
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  of a jury. The trial was scheduled to begin Monday. TikTok has
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  settled several lawsuits with similar claims filed by individuals before they went
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  to trial, most notably in the landmark social media addiction trial in
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  Los Angeles earlier this year. The jury in that case found that
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  YouTube and Meta designed their platforms to hook young users without concern
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  for their well being. TikTok also reached a 400 million settlement with
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  the U.S. Department of Justice in August, ending a 2024 lawsuit alleging
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  the company violated federal children's privacy laws. Associated Press Writer Kim Chandler
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  contributed to this report from Montgomery Allah.