US States Sue Tiktok For Harming Youth With Its Content

2024-10-09 07:06:00

(MENAFN- Asia Times) TikTok, a social media platform with about 120 million active users in the United States, has been sued by 13 US states and Washington, DC, for allegedly harming and failing to protect young people.

Fourteen attorneys general said Tuesday that TikTok is harming children's mental health as it relies on addictive features that keep users glued to its platform. They said these features include notifications that can disrupt kids' sleep patterns and video autoplay that attracts young people's eyes.

They claimed that some children were injured after accepting dangerous“viral challenges” circulated on TikTok's platform.

Citing a Harvard study, the complaint said TikTok earned US$2 billion in advertising revenue in 2022 from ads targeted at US teens aged 13-17. In 2023, TikTok's net advertising revenue amounted to $8.75 billion, compared with $5.96 billion in 2022 and $2.1 billion in 2021, according to eMarketer.

“We strongly disagree with these claims, many of which we believe to be inaccurate and misleading,” TikTok said in a statement on Tuesday.“We provide robust safeguards, proactively remove suspected underage users and have voluntarily launched safety features such as default screen time limits, family pairing and privacy by default for minors under 16.”

TikTok said it has endeavored to work with the attorneys general for over two years but found it“incredibly disappointing” that they have taken the latest step rather than work with the company on constructive solutions to industry-wide challenges.

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