By Diana Novak Jones<\/p>\n
June 15 (Reuters) – Florida’s attorney general sued TikTok on Monday over claims it is violating the state’s law barring social media platforms from allowing children under age 14 to create accounts.<\/p>\n
In the \u200clawsuit, filed in state court in St. Lucie County, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, a Republican, accuses TikTok \u200cof violating the law by allowing underage users to access the platform and misrepresenting the amount of violent or sexual content young users can be exposed \u200bto.<\/p>\n
\u201cTikTok knowingly deceives parents and allows children to be exposed to harmful and inappropriate content in direct violation of Florida law,” Uthmeier said in a statement. “We have zero tolerance for companies that prioritize profit over children\u2019s safety.”<\/p>\n
The lawsuit seeks a court order directing the platform, which is owned by ByteDance, to make changes to bring it into compliance with the law, as well as financial \u200cdamages, according to the filing.<\/p>\n
TikTok did not immediately \u2060respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
TikTok is facing lawsuits from more than 25 state attorneys general across the country over claims it is designed to be addictive to young users, leading to \u2060a mental health crisis among children and teens. Most of the lawsuits have been brought under state consumer protection laws.<\/p>\n
TikTok, Facebook and Instagram parent Meta Platforms, and other social media companies are facing thousands of lawsuits brought by individuals and school districts over their impact on \u200byoung \u200busers. The companies have denied the allegations and say they take \u200bextensive steps to keep teens and young users safe \u200con their platforms.<\/p>\n
In the first trial, in a case brought by a young woman who said she suffered from depression and anxiety after becoming addicted to the platforms at a young age, a jury in Los Angeles found Meta and Alphabet’s Google negligent.<\/p>\n
TikTok, which was also a defendant, settled with the woman before trial. The company also settled another case before trial, brought by a Kentucky school district, agreeing to pay $8 million.<\/p>\n
The law cited in Florida’s lawsuit, known as H.B. 3, requires social media platforms \u200cto bar users under the age of 14 and requires users \u200bunder 16 to get parental consent before opening an account. It took effect \u200bin January 2025.<\/p>\n
In 2025, Florida sued Snap, the owner \u200bof Snapchat, accusing it of illegally employing features that addict children and opening accounts for children \u200caged 13 and younger.<\/p>\n
Florida called Snap’s conduct “particularly egregious” because \u200bthe Santa Monica, California-based company \u200bmarkets Snapchat as safe for 13-year-olds, even though it can be used to view pornography and buy drugs, among other harmful activities.<\/p>\n
The case against Snap, which said the law infringes on children’s rights under the First Amendment of \u200bthe U.S. Constitution, is ongoing, court records \u200cshow.<\/p>\n
A Florida federal judge later blocked enforcement of the law, saying it was unconstitutional. That ruling has been \u200btemporarily halted, allowing Florida to enforce it while it fights the judge\u2019s ruling in an appeals court.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by \u200bDiana Novak Jones; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Bill Berkrot)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Diana Novak Jones June 15 (Reuters) – Florida’s attorney general sued TikTok on Monday over claims it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,7912,30,29,4260,101898,3709],"class_list":["post-308223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-attorney-general","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-james-uthmeier","tag-social-media-platforms","tag-tiktok"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}