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<\/p>\nPennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday announced a lawsuit against TikTok, accusing the social media giant of exposing children to adult-themed content and using addictive features.<\/p>\n
The complaint filed this week in Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, seeks “honesty” from TikTok in how its platform appears in app stores and demands the company take steps to protect child users from becoming addicted to the app.<\/p>\n
\u201cTikTok has built its empire based on a model of addictiveness at all costs, and expanded that empire using deception about what sort of content is viewable for kids,\u201d Sunday said. \u201cThis is not an indictment against modern technology, or a scolding assessment of social media as a whole \u2014 rather, this is an action to hold accountable a company that values dollars over mental wellness.\u201d<\/p>\n
The complaint accuses TikTok of lying about how often adult-themed material \u2014 such as sexual content and nudity, profanity, and drug use \u2014 appears on its platform to achieve an age-13+ app rating in App Stores.<\/p>\n
“The TikTok app contains frequent and intense sexual content and nudity, profanity and crude humor, mature and suggestive themes, and alcohol, tobacco, and drug use and references. TikTok knew and intended to evade the parental controls on Apple devices when it rated its app \u201c’12+,’ and now ’13,'” the complaint says.<\/p>\n
During a public announcement Tuesday, Sunday referenced teenTALK events last school year when he heard from students who feel trapped on TikTok.<\/p>\n
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The lawsuit claims TikTok profits from the more time users spend on its platforms scrolling and generating ad revenue for the company. <\/p>\n
“Endless scrolling compels young users to spend more time on the platform by making it difficult to
disengage,” the lawsuit reads.<\/p>\n
The complaint accuses the social media platform of being aware of its addictive nature and the safeguards that could be implemented to protect kids, but choosing to ignore them.<\/p>\n
NBC10 reached out to TikTok for comment on the lawsuit. TikTok responded with a statement, saying in part:<\/p>\n
“This lawsuit relies on misleading and inaccurate claims and deliberately ignores the concrete safety measures TikTok has voluntarily implemented to support the well-being of our community. Teen accounts have 50 preset safety, privacy and security settings built-in, and TikTok’s Family Pairing tools give parents direct control over screen time and content filters,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n