washington tiktok is under investigation for allegedly violating a settlement reached with us authorities last year that resolved charges the popular app broke rules governing how childrens personal information is treated onlinethe us federal trade commission which enforces the childrens online privacy protection act or coppa and the justice department which often files court actions for the ftc have opened a preliminary investigation into the matter involving the chinabased videosharing appunder rules dating to 1998 legislation coppa requires websites to get parental permission to collect data on children under the age of 13 websites or online services are also expected to ban third parties from collecting the datacoppa also applies to mobile apps gaming platforms and internetconnected toys among othersunder pressure from the ftc tiktok owned by chinas bytedance agreed in early 2019 to pay a 57 million civil penalty for violating coppa by collecting kids first and last names phone numbers email addresses and picturesin a bigger settlement highlighting that tiktok was not alone alphabets youtube agreed in september 2019 to pay 170 million to settle allegations it too violated coppa by tracking kids onlineunder coppa rules the definition of personal information ranges from the least sensitive like street addresses to the most such as social security numbers it also includes photographs and videos tracking a child as they travel from website to website online also counts as collecting personal informationthe ftc has approved of several companies methods for providing age verification for websites some will ask a persons birth date and toss them off the site if they are not 13 or older they also often make it so that the child cannot change the date to gain entry said john verdi of the proprivacy future of privacy forumto comply with coppa companies are expected to post a privacy policy that is easy to find and clearly describes what information is collected and how it is used