Attorney General Josh Stein Sues TikTok for Harming Children

For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Contact:
Nazneen Ahmed (919) 716-0060

(RALEIGH) Attorney General Josh Stein and a bipartisan group of 12 attorneys general today sued TikTok and its parent company ByteDance Ltd. for harming the children and teenagers in their states. The Attorneys General allege that TikTok designed its app to be addictive while misrepresenting the mental, emotional, and physical risks the app posed to young users. Attorney General Stein has played a leading role in the investigation into TikTok and this lawsuit.

"TikTok knowingly created a product that harmed children, and then it deceived everyone about how dangerous and addictive the product was," said Attorney General Josh Stein. "They did this to make more money. It doesn't matter what you're selling - you have to be honest about the risks, and you have to follow the law. TikTok failed in both regards, and our children suffer. So, I'm taking them to court to make them do better by our kids."

Attorney General Stein's lawsuit alleges that TikTok:

1. Designed its app to addict young kids with features including infinite scroll, autoplay, likes, filters, algorithmic recommendations, notifications, and alerts.
2. Misrepresented that the app was safe for kids, when its executives and employees admitted that they knew TikTok addicts and harms children.
3. Deceived parents and the public by advertising that it had safety guidelines in place to protect kids, including screentime management and content moderation. Those features did not work as advertised.

Tens of millions of American teens, including North Carolinians, use TikTok. The average user between 13- and 17-years old uses TikTok for nearly two hours a day. About a quarter spend nearly three hours or more. The hours that kids spend on TikTok every day disrupt their sleep, interrupt their attention in school, and detract from their time with family and friends.

Even worse, TikTok has long known that the platform is not safe for children. In internal records obtained by the attorneys general, TikTok's employees repeatedly told leadership about the dangers of the app for kids and tried to suggest helpful changes to make it safer - but TikTok's leaders refused to make those changes because young users are valuable for TikTok's business model.

Attorney General Stein is seeking injunctive and monetary relief, including asking the court to order TikTok to stop violating the law and to pay penalties.

Today's lawsuit against TikTok is Attorney General Stein's second lawsuit alleging that social media platforms are harming children. In October 2023, he sued Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, for allegedly designing its platforms to hook kids.

Attorney General Stein is joined in filing this bipartisan lawsuit by the Attorneys General of New York, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, South Carolina, Vermont, Washington, the District of Columbia, and California.

A copy of the complaint is available here.

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