13 States Across the US Sue TikTok for Teen Mental Health Harm
Chinese social media giant, TikTok is facing a series of new lawsuits across 13 states and Washington DC in the US. States in the US sued TikTok on October 8, 2024, accusing it of failing to protect young people and harming them mentally.
According to Reuters, Tiktok child addiction lawsuits were filed separately in California, New York, Washington DC, and 11 other states. The new lawsuits expand Tiktok’s fight with US regulators and pave the way for additional penalties against the social media company.
Addictive by Design
In their lawsuits, states allege that the company intentionally designed an addictive software. They say that TikTok’s addictive features keep children glued to mobile phone screens for long hours.
“TikTok cultivates social media addiction to boost corporate profits. TikTok intentionally targets children because they know kids do not yet have the defenses or capacity to create healthy boundaries around addictive content,” California Attorney General, Rob Bonta said.
The Attorney General’s Office in California also accused TikTok of maximizing user viewing time in order to target them with adverts. The social media giant has also been accused of misrepresenting the effectiveness of its content moderation features.
“TikTok knows that compulsive use of and other harmful effects of its platform are wreaking havoc on the mental health of millions of American children and teenagers. Despite such documented knowledge, TikTok continually misrepresents its platform as ‘safe’ [and] ‘appropriate for children and teenagers’,” the New York lawsuit states.
New York’s Attorney General, Letitia James added that young people in the US had been injured and some even died engaging in TikTok “challenges“.
Mental Health Concerns
Teen mental health is a major factor in the new lawsuits with the New York lawsuit highlighting TikTok’s mental health effects.
“Young people are struggling with their mental health because of addictive social media platforms like TikTok,” New York Attorney General, Letitia James said.
The lawsuits allege that TikTok harm on mental health emanates from its powerful algorithm that curates personalized content and generates ‘For you’ feeds for users based on their interests. The addictive nature of this software contributes to a range of mental health issues in children, including depression, anxiety, and body dysmorphia. States argue that TikTok’s endless design feature, face filters, and push notifications are highly addictive and affect users mentally. Washington D.C. Attorney General, Brian Schwalb termed TikTok’s algorithm as “dopamine-inducing”.
“TikTok’s platform is dangerous by design. It’s an intentionally addictive product that is designed to get young people addicted to their screens,” Schwalb said.
He alleged that the social media platform exploits the psychological vulnerabilities of children and uses its virtual currency and live streaming features to run an unlicensed money transmission business.
TikTok’s Response
TikTok said it disagreed with most of the claims in the lawsuits, terming them as misleading and inaccurate. The social media company expressed its commitment to protecting its users, including children, and outlined the steps it has taken to achieve this goal.
“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 screen time limits, family pairing, and privacy by default for minors under 16,” TikTok said in a post shared on X.
The social media giant expressed disappointment that the states opted to sue it instead of working with it to find constructive solutions to the challenges that affect the industry. The video streaming giant is currently entangled in another case over the US divest or ban law that was passed by Congress in April 2024.
In September 2024, TikTok appealed against the US government over the law. The US divest or ban law requires TikTok to spin off from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, by January 2025 or face a US ban.
