In a significant escalation of the ongoing battle between the U.S. government and the popular Chinese-owned app, TikTok, the Justice Department has sued the company for allegedly illegally collecting children's data. The lawsuit, filed on Friday in a federal court in Southern California, claims that TikTok violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by gathering personal information from users under the age of 13 without parental consent.

The government's complaint asserts that TikTok not only allowed children under the age of 13 to create accounts on its platform but also frequently disregarded parents' requests to delete their children's accounts. The suit also points out that TikTok's actions violated a 2019 agreement in which the company had pledged to notify parents before collecting children's data and remove videos from users under 13 years old.

The lawsuit also names TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, seeking court fines for the companies over these violations. The government aims to put an end to what it calls TikTok's "unlawful massive-scale invasions of children's privacy."

In response to the allegations, TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek stated, "We disagree with these allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed. We are proud of our efforts to protect children, and we will continue to update and improve the platform."

This lawsuit is the latest clash between the U.S. government and TikTok, which boasts over 170 million users in the United States. Earlier this year, President Biden signed a law that could potentially lead to the sale or ban of TikTok by the end of January due to national security concerns. TikTok has, in turn, filed a lawsuit to halt the government's plan.

Child protection concerns have been mounting against TikTok, with lawmakers and regulators accusing the app of creating an online environment that poses risks to children. A Pew Research Center study revealed that TikTok is the second-most popular social media platform among teenagers, with 58 percent of them visiting it daily.

TikTok asserts that it has invested significant resources to ensure the safety of its platform. The company's CEO, Shou Chew, has stated that users under the age of 16 do not have access to direct messaging, their accounts are automatically set to private, and only users who are 18 or older can host livestreams.

In recent months, regulators and lawmakers have taken a tougher stance on children's privacy. The Senate recently passed the Kids Online Safety Act, which would require social media platforms, including TikTok, to strengthen measures for protecting minors. Another proposal to enhance online privacy rules for children has also been approved, although it remains uncertain whether this legislation will be taken up by the House.

TikTok's privacy practices have also come under scrutiny globally. The European Union fined the app 345 million euros in September for failing to protect young users' privacy, while a British regulator imposed a fine after discovering that over a million children under the age of 13 had signed up for TikTok's service.

The lawsuit filed by the Justice Department on Friday is the outcome of a lengthy investigation by the Federal Trade Commission into TikTok's practices concerning minors. The complaint claims that millions of TikTok's U.S. users were under the age of 13, citing an internal analysis from the company.

One of the new allegations mentioned is TikTok's "Kids Mode," which the company claims limits data collection and offers curated videos for children. However, the complaint states that even when users were logged in under this mode, TikTok still collected email addresses and other personal information. Additionally, TikTok allegedly shared some of this data with Facebook and a marketing firm to entice young users back to the platform after a decline in their usage.

The lawsuit also accuses TikTok of failing to adequately verify the age of its users. Account reviewers reportedly spent only seconds evaluating whether profiles belonged to children, and the content moderation team overseeing under-13 accounts had a limited number of members.

Furthermore, the government contends that TikTok violated an agreement it had reached with the Federal Trade Commission in 2019. The settlement was made when the FTC accused the app Musical.ly, which was later acquired and merged with TikTok, of unlawfully collecting personal information about children under 13. TikTok settled the allegations by paying a record $5.7 million fine and agreeing to remove videos made by children under 13. The FTC referred the case to the Justice Department after investigating possible violations of the settlement and COPPA.

As the legal battle between TikTok and the U.S. government intensifies, the outcome of this lawsuit will have far-reaching implications for the app and its millions of U.S. users.