California Leads Coalition Suing TikTok Over Addictive Practices

Sacramento, CA — California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against the parent company of social media app TikTok arguing that it is designing the platform to be addictive to kids.

Bonta and New York Attorney General Letitia James are leading a coalition of 14 states that all filed similar lawsuits today in state courts.

Bonta argues, “Our investigation has revealed that TikTok cultivates social media addiction to boost corporate profits. TikTok intentionally targets children because they know kids do not yet have the defenses or capacity to create healthy boundaries around addictive content.”

Bonta goes on to say, “When we look at the youth mental health crisis and the revenue machine TikTok has created, fueled by the time and attention of our young people, it’s devastatingly obvious: Our children and teens never stood a chance against these social media behemoths. TikTok must be held accountable for the harms it created in taking away the time — and childhoods — of American children.”

The China-based company, TikTok, prohibits those under 13 from signing up for the social media app, and there are content restrictions for those under 18. However, the lawsuits state that children can easily bypass those safeguards, and add that children have died or gotten injured doing several dangerous TikTok challenges.