Fourteen AGs sue TikTok, accusing it of harming children’s mental health

Fourteen attorneys general, led by officials in New York and California, filed lawsuits Tuesday accusing the social media platform TikTok of damaging young users’ mental health and collecting their data without consent. 

The legal broadside, organized by a bipartisan coalition of 14 law enforcement officers, alleges TikTok violated state laws by falsely claiming its service is safe for young people. The lawsuits were filed individually.

“Young people are struggling with their mental health because of addictive social media platforms like TikTok,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “TikTok claims that their platform is safe for young people, but that is far from true.”

The lawsuits are focused partly on what the plaintiffs call “addictive” features, including 24/7 notifications and video autoplay. The filings also concentrate on “dangerous TikTok ‘challenges’” and the collection of data about users under 13 without parental consent — an alleged violation of federal online privacy law.

In a statement, a spokesperson for TikTok said: “We strongly disagree with these claims, many of which we believe to be inaccurate and misleading. 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.”

“We provide robust safeguards, proactively remove suspected underage users, and have voluntarily launched safety features such as default screentime limits, family pairing, and privacy by default for minors under 16,” the spokesperson added. “We’ve endeavored to work with the Attorneys General for over two years, and it is incredibly disappointing they have taken this step rather than work with us on constructive solutions to industrywide challenges.”

In recent years, a growing number of health professionals have sounded the alarm about the effects of excessive social media use on mental and physical health, particularly among children and teenagers.

In a report released in May 2023, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned that social media use is a main contributor to depression, anxiety and other issues in the nation’s teens. 

Murthy also wrote an op-ed for The New York Times in June calling on Congress to require a tobacco-style warning for visitors to social media platforms, arguing that immediate action is needed to protect young people from the potential mental health harms of social media.

Earlier this year, the Senate Judiciary Committee grilled the CEOs of TikTok, Meta and X during a hearing about online child safety and youth mental health.

This spring, the publication of social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s “The Anxious Generation” stoked intense debate in academic circles over the question of whether spending too much time on smartphones imperils young people’s mental health. Haidt argued that the smartphone-led “great rewiring of childhood” is causing an “epidemic of mental illness.”

TikTok has established itself as one of the most popular and influential social media platforms in America, home to a seemingly endless supply of viral content and memes. The video-sharing app boasts more than 170 million American users and commands the attention of young people across the country. 

But the service’s rise has been shadowed by concerns about mental health, as well as national security. TikTok is owned by the China-based firm ByteDance, and Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike have expressed fears that Beijing is using it to harvest data, spread political propaganda and exercise soft power amid wider geopolitical tensions.

The lawsuits filed Monday do not address national security. They attempt to paint a picture of the company’s “underlying business model,” which the coalition characterizes as “maximizing young users’ times on the platform so the company can boost revenue from selling targeted ads.”

The attorneys general behind the lawsuits are attempting to use various state laws to prevent TikTok from using “harmless and exploitative tactics.” The suits also seek to impose financial penalties, including “the disgorgement of all profits resulting from the fraudulent and illegal practices, and to collect damages for users that have been harmed,” James’ office said.

The legal coalition comprises the attorneys general of California, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont, Washington state and Washington, D.C.