Lawsuits Allege TikTok Collects and Sells Information About Millions of Minors, Without Parental Consent

With a growing number of class action lawsuits being pursued against TikTok, each raising similar allegations that the popular social media platform failed to disclose that it collects and sells personally identifiable information (PII) about millions of minor children without proper consent, a motion has been filed to centralize and consolidate the claims before one federal judge for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

TikTok is a social media platform that is typically downloaded onto smartphones, allowing users to create, share, and watch short videos of themselves and others. Since its launch, TikTok has rapidly gained popularity in the U.S., attracting over 100 million active users, many of whom are young people between the ages of 16 and 24. However, as the app has grown in popularity, so too have the concerns about the practices employed by the social media company.

Over the last two years, a number of social media addiction lawsuits have been brought against TikTok and other internet companies, such as Alphabet Inc., Google LLC, YouTube LLC, Snap Inc., and Meta, each raising similar allegations that the platforms are intentionally designed to manipulate and maximize user time and engagement, as well as the type of content they view. These lawsuits claim the tactics have caused children to experience anxiety, depression, eating disorders and other psychological damage, especially among young girls.

Given the similar allegations and questions of fact raised in TikTok social media addiction lawsuits being pursued throughout the federal court system, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) issued a transfer order in October 2022, centralizing the claims before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in the Northern District of California, as part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL).

The social media app now finds itself at the center of a second TikTok lawsuit MDL petition, this time involving class action claims brought on behalf of parents, who claim that the company failed to provide adequate notice and parental consent before collecting, using and selling the personal information of their children.

TikTok Parental Consent Lawsuits

On December 5, a new motion to transfer (PDF) was filed with the U.S. JPML, requesting that all TikTok data privacy lawsuits brought in U.S. District Courts nationwide be centralized as part of a separate MDL before Judge Rogers in California.

The request was filed by Nick McKissick, who indicates that there are at least seven different TikTok class action lawsuits over parent consent problems, which are currently pending in five different U.S. District Courts nationwide. However, the number of claims may increase dramatically throughout 2025.

McKissick originally filed his class action complaint (PDF) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on November 15, pursuing damages on behalf of himself and his minor child, who is only identified with the initials A.M.

Similar to other claims pending in other districts, McKissik alleges that TikTok is in violation of U.S. regulations that are designed to protect children under 13 from having their information collected, stored, and sold online without their parents’ consent.

The lawsuits assert that TikTok violates the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), a federal law mandating that online services and websites secure verifiable parental consent prior to collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children. Additionally, the law stipulates that these entities must transparently disclose their practices regarding the usage and sharing of such information.

McKissick states that TikTok is in violation of COPPA by collecting and selling a wide array of data on minors, including names, ages, profile images, passwords, email addresses, phone numbers, addresses, “approximate” locations, social media account details, phone and social media contacts, communications between users, clipboard data from devices, and payment card numbers.

The complaint details that A.M., who is now 16, created a TikTok account at age 12 without any notification to or consent from McKissick, who is the child’s parent and legal guardian. McKissick states the app then began tracking A.M.’s online activity to target the child with advertisements, a practice that McKissick claims violates COPPA.

Although the lawsuit acknowledges TikTok features a “Kids Mode” for children under 13, McKissick claims that the platform merely requests users’ birthdates without effectively preventing underage access, or alerting parents that the child has joined the app.

The complaint states that TikTok fails to enforce adequate safeguards to prevent children from accessing the platform through false age declarations, which allows the company to exploit the data of minors for advertising and revenue generation.

“TikTok and its employees have long known that children misrepresent their ages to pass through TikTok’s age gate, and that despite other measures purportedly designed to remove children from the platform, children are ubiquitous on TikTok,” McKissick states.

McKissick’s complaint seeks class action status, on behalf of his child and others similarly situated, asserting claims of unjust enrichment and invasion of privacy, including intrusion upon seclusion and public disclosure of private facts, as well as violations of federal and state privacy laws.

The lawsuit also seeks lifetime credit monitoring and dark web scanning services for minors whose personal information has been collected, used, and potentially sold without consent.

TikTok has not yet responded to the motion to centralize the parental consent lawsuits, and it is not clear whether the JPML will agree to create a separate MDL or combine the claims with the TikTok social media addiction lawsuits already consolidated before Judge Rogers.

When a large number of claims are brought in different federal district courts, each raising allegations that similar injuries were caused by the same conduct of a limited number of defendants, the JPML often centralizes the claims to reduce duplicative discovery into common issues in the litigation, avoid conflicting pretrial rulings from different courts and serve the convenience of the parties, witnesses and the courts.