TikTok Lawsuit Filed by State AGs Over Addiction, Mental Health Risks to Teens and Children

Lawsuit points to TikTok Challenges that have resulted in teens dying while trying to surf on subway cars and steal Kia vehicles.

Attorneys General from 14 states have filed lawsuits against TikTok, saying that the social media platform has been misrepresented to the public as safe for children, while it is actually causing many of them severe mental harm, and leading to serious injuries and deaths through infamous “TikTok challenges.”

The lawsuits were filed by the states of California, New York, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia against TikTok, Inc. and ByteDance on October 8, raising similar allegations that TikTok intentionally profited from failing to make its platform safe for children, even when it was capable of putting more protective measures in place.

“Depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and suicidal ideations have all reached record levels among children in New York and elsewhere,” according to one complaint (PDF) filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James. “A growing body of evidence isolates addictive social media as a key driver of the youth mental health crisis.”

Social Media Addiction Concerns

Concerns over the side effects of social media for children and teens have grown along with the number and availability of the platforms targeting young users.

At a Senate hearing last year, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy indicated that social media was a contributing factor to the growing mental health problems among American youths, and called for age restrictions on social media websites and apps.

Last month, 40 attorneys general called for warning labels for social media websites, many of whom went on to join the latest batch of TikTok lawsuits filed this week.

The states’ lawsuits come as companies like Meta Platforms, Inc., which operates Facebook, as well as Alphabet Inc., Google LLC, YouTube LLC, Snap. Inc., TikTok Inc. and ByteDance Inc., already face a growing number of social media addiction lawsuits being brought on behalf of parents and young adults nationwide, each raising similar allegations that the social media services were intentionally designed to manipulate and maximize user time and engagement, as well as the type of content they view, causing irreparable harm.

In this new lawsuit, attorneys general are striving to compel TikTok to abandon policies they deem harmful to youth, while also seeking financial damages to cover the burden of increasing mental health treatment needs among children and teens.

“Young people are struggling with their mental health because of addictive social media platforms like TikTok,” New York Attorney General James said in a press release issued this week announcing the filing of her lawsuit.

“TikTok claims that their platform is safe for young people, but that is far from true. In New York and across the country, young people have died or gotten injured doing dangerous TikTok challenges and many more are feeling more sad, anxious, and depressed because of TikTok’s addictive features.”

The TikTok lawsuits identified some of the addictive features that are designed to keep teens engaged for unhealthy amounts of time, such as Autoplay features that stream videos endlessly, timed content that requires users to watch within a certain time frame or miss seeing it, beauty filters, and the social validation of its “likes” and comment sections.

The state attorneys general also note that TikTok Challenges have led to a 15-year-old boy dying when he attempted to “surf” on the top of a subway car, as well as the deaths of four teens in a car accident in October 2022, during the theft of a vehicle during a “Kia Challenge,” which instructed viewers on how to hack into the ignitions and steal Kia and Hyundai vehicles.

The lawsuit accuses TikTok of misrepresenting the safety of the platform and its features, using harmful and exploitative tactics, and improperly handling children’s private data.

“Through these lawsuits, Attorney General James and the bipartisan coalition of attorneys general are using state laws to stop TikTok from using these harmful and exploitative tactics,” the New York attorney general said in her press release. “In addition, the lawsuits seek to impose financial penalties, including disgorgement of all profits resulting from the fraudulent and illegal practices, and to collect damages for users that have been harmed.”