The US Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission have sued TikTok and its parent company ByteDance for allegedly failing to protect children’s privacy on the social media app. The government said TikTok violated a law that prohibits collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children under 13 without parental consent. The lawsuit, filed on Friday, follows similar cases in the UK and EU that resulted in regulators fining TikTok millions of dollar over claims that it was failing to keep children safe on the platform and mishandling their data. It is also part of a wider standoff between the US government and ByteDance, after Congress passed a bill earlier this year that gives the China-based company one year to sell TikTok or face a total ban on the app. The justice department said TikTok knowingly permitted children to create regular TikTok accounts, and then create and share short-form videos and messages with adults and others on the regular TikTok platform. TikTok collected personal information from these children without obtaining consent from their parents. “For years, defendants have knowingly allowed children under 13 to create and use TikTok accounts without their parents’ knowledge or consent, have collected extensive data from those children, and have failed to comply with parents’ requests to delete their children’s accounts and personal information,” the justice department said in its filing. In March, a source told Reuters the FTC could resolve an investigation into TikTok over allegedly faulty privacy and data security practices by either filing suit or reaching a settlement. Reuters in 2020 first reported the FTC and the justice department were looking into allegations that the popular social media app failed to live up to a 2019 agreement aimed at protecting children’s privacy. The Chinese-owned short-video platform boasts about 170 million US users, and is exceedingly popular among teens. European Union regulators fined TikTok €345m ($377m) last year for violating a variety of data laws pertaining to child privacy. These included setting child users’ accounts to public by default and failing to provide transparent information to children on the app. The UK similarly fined TikTok about $15m for misusing data it captured from children under the age of 13. On Tuesday, the US Senate passed a bill that would extend the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, known as Coppa, to cover teenagers up to age 17, ban targeted advertising to kids and teens, and give parents and kids the option to delete their information from social media platforms. The bill would need to pass in the Republican-controlled House, currently on recess until September, to become law. TikTok said in June it had been working with the FTC for more than a year to address the agency’s concerns and said it was “disappointed the agency is pursuing litigation instead of continuing to work with us on a reasonable solution”.