nikkimeel - stock.adobe.com
CV NEWS FEED // Fourteen state attorneys general have sued social media giant TikTok for damaging the mental and physical health of young people, alleging that the platform violated state laws by claiming it was safe for youth.
The entertainment news outlet Deadline reports that the lawsuit was co-led by New York Attorney General Letitia James and California Attorney General Rob Bonta and that each coalition member filed separately. The lawsuits seek “civil penalties, punitive damages, and injunctive relief.”
The lawsuit argues that the TikTok “challenges” have caused injuries, hospitalizations, and deaths among young people and that the platform’s addictive programming leads to mental health problems and body image issues.
Deadline explains: “TikTok uses an addictive content-recommendation system designed to keep minors on the platform as long as possible and as often as possible, despite the dangers of compulsive use.”
Bonta stated, “TikTok intentionally targets children because they know kids do not yet have the defenses or capacity to create healthy boundaries around addictive content.”
He added that now that evidence has shown the link between social media use and mental health problems, it is clear that “our children and teens never stood a chance against these social media behemoths.”
Bonta continued, “TikTok must be held accountable for the harms it created in taking away the time — and childhoods — of American children.”
New York’s lawsuit states that it aims “to remedy past and ongoing fraudulent, deceptive, and unlawful practices by TikTok … and to hold TikTok accountable for the harms it has inflicted on the youngest New Yorkers,” citing the skyrocketing depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and suicide ideation rates among young people and the evidence linking these issues to social media.
The company has denied all allegations, and issued a statement saying that it disagreed with the accusations: “We’re proud of and remain deeply committed to the work we’ve done to protect teens and we will continue to update and improve our product.”
The company claimed that it provides robust safeguards and proactively removes suspected underage users and that it has voluntarily launched safety features such as default screen-time limits, family pairing, and privacy by default for minors under 16.
“We’ve endeavored to work with the Attorneys General for over two years,” the statement continued, “and it is incredibly disappointing they have taken this step rather than work with us on constructive solutions to industry-wide challenges.”
TikTok was also sued in August by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission for collecting personal information from minors under 13, violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
Deadline reports that TikTok may also be banned by the Biden administration, which demanded in April that TikTok’s parent company ByteDance either divest TikTok or be removed from United States app stores.
