Credit: Commonwealth Media Services
Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday has filed a lawsuit against TikTok and alleged the popular social media platform misleads parents about the abundance of mature content on its app and uses addictive design features.
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The complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief was filed by the attorney general’s office in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas. The lawsuit accuses TikTok of violating Pennsylvania’s consumer protection law.
Sunday’s office argues that TikTok markets itself as safe for users as young as 13 while failing to disclose the risks associated with features engineered to encourage compulsive use.
“Today is an action rooted, very simply, in protecting children,” Sunday, a Republican, said Tuesday at a Harrisburg press conference. “Social media allows us to be closer than ever to celebrities, athletes and musicians that we like. However, as easy as a child can watch (Dwayne) ‘The Rock’ (Johnson) make breakfast or hang out with his kids, they can see someone drinking alcohol or consuming drugs. And that is what is often glorified.”
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TikTok characterizes adult-themed material—including sexual content, nudity, profanity, suggestive themes, and references to drugs and alcohol—as “infrequent” or “mild” in order to secure a 13+ age rating in Apple’s App Store. The state contends these characterizations are false and that such content appears frequently, even in videos recommended by TikTok’s algorithm to accounts registered to 13-year-olds, according to the complaint.
TikTok should hold a 17+ rating under Apple’s former system, or a 16+ or 18+ rating under its updated system, according to the complaint.
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Lower age ratings allow TikTok to expand its audience and boost advertising revenue, which Sunday described as the platform’s main revenue stream.
Internal communications detailed in reports show Apple privately urged TikTok in 2022 to adjust its rating due to “frequent or intense mature or suggestive content,” Sunday said.
The lawsuit alleges safety tools advertised to parents, including Restricted Mode and Family Pairing, are “deficient” and “ineffective.”
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In addition to rating misrepresentations, the lawsuit targets the app’s features that authorities said makes addiction TikTok’s business model. The features include push notifications, the personalized “For You” feed, and infinite scrolling.
The state-level lawsuit seeks a court declaration that TikTok’s actions are unlawful, an injunction requiring the company to implement effective safeguards and age restrictions, civil penalties, restitution, and legal fees.
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Sunday took part in “teenTALK” events at schools across the state over the past year and heard students talk of losing hours to scrolling late at night or early in the morning.
“TikTok 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,” Sunday said. “This is not an indictment against modern technology, or a scolding assessment of social media as a whole — rather, this is an action to hold accountable a company that values dollars over mental wellness.”
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TikTok pushed back against the state’s claims.
“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,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. “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. We will vigorously defend against these claims.”
Pew Research Center has found that TikTok is one of the most downloaded apps each year, with more than 1 in 5 teens report being on it “almost constantly.”
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The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office and county government are suing TikTok and other social media companies making similar claims.
The Pennsylvania lawsuit follows complaints filed by other state attorneys general and other officials.
