Pennsylvania Attorney General David Sunday filed a lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, on Tuesday, alleging the social media giant failed to shield children from age-inappropriate material and from over-usage of the app.
The lawsuit says TikTok misclassified the app as being appropriate for teenagers 13 and older, and intentionally designed the platform to be addictive to teens while knowing it was harmful.
In the suit, filed this week in Allegheny County Court, the attorney general seeks honesty from TikTok in how its platform appears in app stores, and demands the company take steps to protect minors from becoming addicted to the app.
Features like Autoplay and ForYou make the app addictive for teenagers while safeguards put in place to protect them are ineffective, the lawsuit alleges. The suit alleges that the app is rife with sexual, drug-related, and profane content that is inappropriate for teens under 16. Also, parents are not properly made aware of the risks to children, the suit alleges.
The suit follows a yearlong program called “teenTALK,” a series of roundtable discussions about social media between Pennsylvania teens and the attorney general. The conversations concluded in a set of policy recommendations to social media companies, schools, and parents.
At Tuesday’s news conference, Sunday referenced the teenTALK events when he heard from students who said they feel trapped on TikTok.
The lawsuit alleges that is by design, as TikTok’s profits from ad revenue are tied to the time users spend scrolling. The suit alleges that TikTok is aware of the addictiveness but ignores barriers that can be implemented to protect kids.
The speed at which technology is developing and how children are using it can seem to outpace the policy recommendations offered. Recently, at a roundtable in West Chester, Philly-area parents asked the state for more guidance on how to confront harmful deepfakes circulating in schools.
According to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2024, about 57% of teens ages 13 to 17 said they used TikTok every day, with 16% saying they used it “constantly.” According to a 2023 advisory report by the U.S. surgeon general, teenagers who spend more than three hours a day on social media face the risk of experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety.
The lawsuit alleges that social media companies have deployed different algorithms in different countries, citing a report by the New York Times that described how Chinese tech companies have to choose between operating in China or “everywhere else,” because internet policies differ in China. Lawsuits across the United States have sought to regulate social media giants, while many countries across Europe and Asia are implementing social media bans for minors, some of which are set to launch this fall, according to a Reuters report.
Sunday asserted that he’s “not trying to prevent the evolution of technology but that it is critical that technology does not evolve at the cost of our children.”
Sunday asserts more lawsuits will be coming. Pennsylvania was one of 33 states in a 2023 suit against Meta, the parent company of both Instagram and Facebook, accusing the company of having an addictive algorithm with features that target children. The suit also accused the company of concealing internal research showing the negative psychological effects of using its platform. In a similar case, a New Mexico judge this month ordered Meta to pay $942 million to a public health abatement fund and impose mandatory time limits on the apps for users under 18. Meta is appealing.
“I realized that collaborative state work is the only way to get things done,” Sunday said. But he cautioned that results from these lawsuits will not be quick.