TikTok Settles Alabama Teen-Safety Case

Montgomery — Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced on Friday, 25 September 2026, that the state had settled its lawsuit against TikTok. Under the deal, TikTok pays Alabama at least $100 million within 45 days and must roll out a package of safety features for young users in the state. A trial had been set to start the following Monday.

The case accused TikTok of designing an addictive product, exposing young users to serious harm and misleading the public about how safe the app is. At least 27 other states and Washington, D.C., have brought similar suits. Alabama’s deal is the first state settlement resolving those teen-safety claims against TikTok, according to CNBC and the attorney general’s office.

Money and the “up to $300 million” clause

The guaranteed payment is $100 million. CNBC, citing the settlement, reported that Alabama’s payout could rise to $300 million if 40 other attorneys general sign similar agreements with TikTok within a set window. Marshall’s office called the settlement "a victory for the protection of Alabama’s children" that "will fundamentally transform how TikTok operates for kids and teens."

What TikTok must change in Alabama

According to the attorney general’s bulletin, TikTok must implement:

• a two-hour daily time limit for children, with parental controls that can tighten that further;
• “productive pauses” that interrupt teens after 15 minutes of continuous use, and again at 60 and 90 minutes;
• nighttime access limits from midnight to 6 a.m., plus limits on messaging and push notifications overnight and during school hours;
• stronger age-assurance tools;
• tighter content moderation, including limits on adults discovering teen accounts and parental notice of suspicious adult–teen interactions;
• a ban on cosmetic filters for teen users;
• a default non-personalized feed for teens;
• stronger, clearer parental controls.

CNBC reported that, as with a recent multistate Meta settlement, Alabama’s TikTok deal can require still more limits if rivals such as Snap, Google and Meta adopt similar rules.

TikTok’s response

A spokesperson for TikTok’s U.S. operations said the agreement “builds on our commitment and core objective to continually enhance our robust safety tools to protect teens,” according to CNBC. In the litigation, TikTok has argued that it designs for teen safety and that a federal law known as Section 230 — which generally shields online platforms from being treated as the publisher of their users’ posts — protects it from some claims over user-generated content.

What happens next

The trial that was to begin in Montgomery state court is off if the settlement is finalized as announced. Other states’ cases continue unless they join similar deals. Platform changes that are hard to run state-by-state may push TikTok toward wider product updates, but the settlement itself applies only in Alabama (CNBC); other states would need their own agreements. The attorney general’s announcement did not say whether TikTok admitted wrongdoing.