Attorneys-general Rob Bonta (California) and Letitia James (New York) are leading a bipartisan coalition to sue TikTok for allegedly violating consumer protection laws and exploiting and harming young users. 

This group action also involves 11 other states (Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont and Washington), plus the District of Columbia. And it brings the number of states that have filed lawsuits against TikTok for the way it treats kids up to 23 in total. 

A significant number of children in the US are on the platform—with Pew Research estimating the number at roughly 63% of 13- to 17-year-olds last year. Most US teens use it daily, and 17% say they’re on it “almost constantly”. 

As an example of the legal actions being taken on a state-by-state basis, the California Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in the Santa Clara County Superior Court yesterday claiming that TikTok has violated California’s consumer protection statutes, as well as the state’s Unfair Competition Law and False Advertising Law. Some of the alleged misconduct has to do with TikTok’s content recommendation system, which is designed to make the video-sharing platform addictive and keep kids on it longer. 

The lawyers also argue that TikTok’s filters for changing the way an image looks can lead kids to develop unrealistic beauty standards that have an impact on their self-esteem. There’s also an autoplay function that keeps content coming—one that kids can’t disable—adding to the platform’s addictiveness. 

The California suit argues that TikTok’s endless scrolling interface leads to kids spending excessive time on the platform since they can’t stop their viewing sessions. And similarly, the state claims that the platform’s TikTok Stories and TikTok Live features compel kids to return to watch content that is only available for a limited time, thereby creating a “fear of missing out” (FOMO) reaction in young viewers. 

Furthermore, the coalition claims the platform isn’t just harmful to kids; it actively works to hide its dangers through content moderation, community guidelines and public assurances. At the same time, TikTok collects and uses info from kids’ accounts, without parental consent or notice. 

“When we look at the youth mental health crisis and the revenue machine TikTok has created, fueled by the time and attention of our young people, it’s devastatingly obvious: Our children and teens never stood a chance against these social media behemoths,” said Bonta. “TikTok must be held accountable for the harms it created in taking away the time—and childhoods—of American children.”

“We strongly disagree with these claims, many of which we believe to be inaccurate and misleading,” a TikTok spokesperson tells Kidscreen. “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. 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 industry-wide challenges.”

TikTok is already facing a lawsuit from the US Justice Department and the FTC for violating COPPA regulations by collecting and using info from kids under the age of 13 without notifying or obtaining consent from their parents. That civil suit was filed in August.