A proposed class-action lawsuit has been launched against TikTok, accusing the popular video-sharing platform of exposing children and teens to harmful content and using their data for targeted ads without their consent or knowledge.
The civil claim was filed in B.C. Supreme Court in October after federal and provincial privacy commissioners reached the same conclusions from a more than two-year investigation that also found TikTok had failed to keep young kids off the platform, despite the company saying the app is not intended for users under 13.
The lawyers behind the class action are now seeking other affected Canadians — not including those in Quebec — who used TikTok between October 2021 and October 2025 to sign on.
Linda Visser, a partner at Siskinds LLP which is bringing the class action alongside Rice Harbut Elliott LLP, told Global News in an email that the law firms have received “well over 100 inquiries” from potential claimants.
“Our hope is that through the class action we can get compensation for people whose information was misused, and then hopefully improve practices going forward so that companies are more transparent about what information is being collected and used,” she said in an interview.
Visser said she is hopeful the class action is certified sometime next year or early 2027 at the latest, but it will depend on the court’s availability.
She added the law firms are “still in the process of serving” the defendants, which include not just TikTok and its Canadian subsidiary but also its China-based owner ByteDance.
The claims in the lawsuit have yet to be proven in court. Visser said a hearing has been scheduled for early next year seeking to appoint a judge to the case.
The class action’s representative plaintiff, referred to in the claim as S.L., was under 13 years old when they created their TikTok account in 2021, according to the allegations in court documents.
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The claim says S.L. used TikTok approximately one to two hours per day to connect with friends and view videos related to their interests. The B.C. user would like and share videos but would not typically comment on them, and did not share details about their specific interests with TikTok.
“At the time of registering a User Account on TikTok, S.L. did not read any policies, terms, or conditions on the Platform and was unaware that TikTok would collect, use and share their sensitive information, including information collected through their browsing activity both on and off the Platform, for tracking, profiling, and advertising purposes,” the claim says.
“TikTok has not, at any time, sought verification of S.L.’s age or any form of consent from S.L.’s parents with respect to their use of the platform.”
The lawsuit goes on to highlight TikTok’s targeted advertising practices, including the company’s “mantra” to advertising partners: “Don’t Make Ads. Make TikToks.”
Those instructions, coupled with TikTok’s sharing of users’ information with third-party advertisers, “blur the line between ads and content on the platform, which increases user attention to ads, makes it less likely ads will be skipped, and makes it more likely ads will influence user behaviour,” the claim says.
Children and teens are “at particular risk of privacy-related and secondary harms arising from this practice,” the claim adds, as well as from the ability for users to purchase products advertised to them directly through TikTok Shop.
It cites resolutions and statements from third-party organizations like the Global Privacy Assembly and UNICEF, as well as studies from the National Library of Medicine, that have made similar conclusions.
“With respect to all class members, TikTok did not, at any time, provide a clear, comprehensive, and meaningful explanation of its practices related to targeted advertising and content personalization,” the lawsuit says.
The claim cites data from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada that says 40 per cent of Canadians — about 14 million people — use TikTok, with 70 per cent of those users under the age of 40. Close to three-quarters of Canadian teens use the app, while 40 per cent of Canadians under 13 “use or have used” TikTok despite the platform’s purported age restriction.
The claim says TikTok has also used inadequate age verification or “age gate” measures as well as “opt-out, rather than opt-in, advertising practices” that children cannot be expected to fully understand or consent to — a finding also underscored by privacy commissioners in their September findings.
It also accuses TikTok of failing to comply with requests from parents and guardians to delete their children’s accounts, and “largely inadequate and ineffective” measures to detect and remove underage users.
“At all material times, TikTok knew or ought to have known that its age assurance measures were ineffective,” the claim says.
“While it had tools capable of detecting underage users on the platform … it chose not to apply these technologies to prevent, identify, or remove underage users from accessing the platform, resulting in a deliberate and significant invasion of the child class members’ privacy.”
The class action seeks $500 million in general damages and $20 million in aggravated damages, or another amount deemed appropriate by the judge, as well as an acknowledgment by TikTok that it violated class members’ rights and commitments to update its policies and practices.
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit’s claims.
Following their investigation, privacy commissioners in Ottawa, B.C., Alberta and Quebec said TikTok committed to “stopping use of granular information, such as interests inferred from use of the platform, to target ads to users under 18,” among other changes in response to the findings.
“We welcome the conclusion of this investigation after working openly and constructively with the privacy commissioners, and are pleased they agreed to a number of our proposals to further strengthen our platform for Canadians,” a spokesperson for TikTok said at the time.
“While we disagree with some of the findings, we remain committed to maintaining strong transparency and privacy practices.”
Visser said she’s hopeful the class action will result in damages awarded and improved efforts to protect children, but acknowledged past attempts to hold TikTok accountable have resulted in settlements and no changes to its practices.
She pointed specifically to a $2-million settlement by TikTok in 2022 to end class-action lawsuits filed in B.C., which accused the company of violating the privacy rights of both minors and adults.
However, Visser added, “we wouldn’t have started the case if we weren’t confident that we would get a good result for our class members.”
