{"id":2920,"date":"2024-10-08T15:32:17","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T15:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/tiktok-sued-by-dozens-of-states-alleging-addiction-risk-to-kids\/"},"modified":"2024-10-08T15:32:17","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T15:32:17","slug":"tiktok-sued-by-dozens-of-states-alleging-addiction-risk-to-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/tiktok-sued-by-dozens-of-states-alleging-addiction-risk-to-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"TikTok Sued By Dozens of States, Alleging Addiction Risk to Kids"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tMore than a dozen states and the District of Columbia have filed lawsuits against TikTok on Tuesday, alleging the popular short-form video app is harming youth mental health by designing its platform to be addictive to kids.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe lawsuits stem from a national investigation into TikTok, which was launched in March 2022 by a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from many states, including California, Kentucky and New Jersey. All of the complaints were filed in state courts.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the heart of each lawsuit is the TikTok algorithm, which powers what users see on the platform by populating the app\u2019s main \u201cFor You\u201d feed with content tailored to people\u2019s interests. The lawsuits also emphasize design features that they say make children addicted to the platform, such as the ability to scroll endlessly through content, push notifications that come with built-in \u201cbuzzes\u201d and face filters that create unattainable appearances for users.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn its filings, the District of Columbia called the algorithm \u201cdopamine-inducing,\u201d and said it was created to be intentionally addictive so the company could trap many young users into excessive use and keep them on its app for hours on end. TikTok does this despite knowing that these behaviors will lead to \u201cprofound psychological and physiological harms,\u201d such as anxiety, depression, body dysmorphia and other long-lasting problems, the complaint said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt is profiting off the fact that it\u2019s addicting young people to its platform,\u201d District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb said in an interview.<\/p>\n

\n\tKeeping people on the platform is \u201chow they generate massive ad revenue,\u201d Schwalb said. \u201cBut unfortunately, that\u2019s also how they generate adverse mental health impacts on the users.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTikTok does not allow children under 13 to sign up for its main service and restricts some content for everyone under 18. But Washington and several other states said in their filing that children can easily bypass those restrictions, allowing them to access the service adults use despite the company\u2019s claims that its platform is safe for children.<\/p>\n

\n\tTheir lawsuit also takes aim at other parts of the company\u2019s business.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe district alleges TikTok is operating as an \u201cunlicensed virtual economy\u201d by allowing people to purchase TikTok Coins \u2013 a virtual currency within the platform \u2013 and send \u201cGifts\u201d to streamers on TikTok LIVE who can cash it out for real money. TikTok takes a 50% commission on these financial transactions but hasn\u2019t registered as a money transmitter with the U.S. Treasury Department or authorities in the district, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

\n\tOfficials say teens are frequently exploited for sexually explicit content through TikTok\u2019s LIVE streaming feature, which has allowed the app to operate essentially as a \u201cvirtual strip club\u201d without any age restrictions. They say the cut the company gets from the financial transactions allows it to profit from exploitation.<\/p>\n

\n\tMany states have filed lawsuits against TikTok and other tech companies over the past few years as a reckoning grows against prominent social media platforms and their ever-growing impact on young people\u2019s lives. In some cases, the challenges have been coordinated in a way that resembles how states previously organized against the tobacco and pharmaceutical industries.<\/p>\n

\n\tLast week, Texas Attorney General\u00a0Ken Paxton<\/a>\u00a0sued TikTok, alleging the company was sharing and selling minors\u2019 personal information in violation of a new state law that prohibits these practices. TikTok, which disputes the allegations, is also fighting against a similar data-oriented federal lawsuit filed in August by the Department of Justice.<\/p>\n

\n\tSeveral Republican-led states, such as Nebraska, Kansas, New Hampshire, Kansas, Iowa and Arkansas, have also previously sued the company,\u00a0some unsuccessfully<\/a>, over allegations it is harming children\u2019s mental health, exposing them to \u201cinappropriate\u201d content or allowing young people to be sexually exploited on its platform. Arkansas has brought a legal challenge against YouTube, as well as Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook and Instagram and is being sued by dozens of states over allegations its harming young people\u2019s mental health. New York City and some public school districts have also brought their own lawsuits.<\/p>\n

\n\tTikTok, in particular, is facing other challenges at the national level. Under a federal law that took effect earlier this year, TikTok could be banned from the U.S. by mid-January if its China-based parent company ByteDance doesn\u2019t sell the platform by mid-January.<\/p>\n

\n\tBoth TikTok and ByteDance are challenging the law at an appeals court in Washington. A panel of three judges heard\u00a0oral arguments<\/a>\u00a0in the case last month and are expected to issue a ruling, which could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than a dozen states and the District of Columbia have filed lawsuits against TikTok on Tuesday, alleging the popular short-form video app is harming youth mental health […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1017,586,3743,1554,1171,1117,412,182],"class_list":["post-2920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-addiction","tag-alleging","tag-dozens","tag-kids","tag-risk","tag-states","tag-sued","tag-tiktok"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}