Fourteen Attorneys General Slam TikTok With Lawsuits Alleging App Harms Children’s Mental Health

Fourteen attorneys general filed lawsuits Tuesday alleging social media app TikTok illegally collected users’ data and caused harm to children’s mental health.

A bipartisan coalition of attorneys general in New York, California and Washington, D.C., among others, sued the company in separate suits, with California Attorney General Rob Bonta stating the platform uses “manipulative features to addict young users” with endless scrolling and autoplay features, according to a press release. Recent crackdowns on social media platforms have sought to address potential harm caused to children, with U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recently calling for policymakers to work to restrict minors’ access to inappropriate content.

The California suit also alleges TikTok “preys on young people’s unique psychological vulnerabilities” with features like temporary stories that encourage them to open the platform more often, the lawsuit states. Its “beauty filters” also “foster unrealistic beauty standards, among other body dysmorphic impacts that are known to harm self-esteem and induce negative body image,” which Bonta says TikTok is aware of and maintains the feature anyway.

“Our investigation has revealed that TikTok cultivates social media addiction to boost corporate profits,” Bonta said in the press release. “TikTok intentionally targets children because they know kids do not yet have the defenses or capacity to create healthy boundaries around addictive content. TikTok must be held accountable for the harms it created in taking away the time — and childhoods — of American children.”