The US Justice Department has sued TikTok for allegedly obtaining personal information from children without parental consent.
The department announced on Friday that it has filed a lawsuit against the operator of the video-sharing app and its Chinese parent company ByteDance in a federal court in California.
The complaint says a federal law prohibits website operators from collecting and using personal information from children under the age of 13 without obtaining consent from their parents. It says TikTok collected and retained email addresses and other types of personal information from accounts made by children, including those created in its “Kids Mode” version.
The department also says that when parents asked TikTok to delete the accounts and the information in them, the operator frequently failed to meet their requests. It adds that TikTok had deficient and ineffectual internal policies to handle the issue.
TikTok issued a statement in response to the lawsuit. It says many of the allegations “relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed.”
The statement also says TikTok will continue its efforts to improve its protection of children.
There are deep concerns in the United States that the app could pose a threat to national security as data could be leaked to China.
In April, the US president signed into law a package of measures that include banning TikTok in the country unless it is sold by its parent company. TikTok sued the US government, saying the legislation violates the US constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression.