Fourteen attorneys general have sued TikTok, alleging the social media platform has made children addicted to the service and that it has harmed their mental health.
The suit is led by Democratic Attorneys General Letitia James of New York and Rob Bonta of California, but it is a bipartisan enterprise, including the attorneys general of Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina, who are all Republicans, according to NPR.
The suit alleges that the social media platform has ignored consumer protection laws in a bid to harm children’s mental health, citing its endlessly scrolling feed making children more addicted, the push notifications sent late at night to catch children’s attention, and TikTok “challenges” that encourage dangerous behavior.
One such challenge cited in the suit was the case of a teenager who died in New York after engaging in a “subway surfing challenge,” in which a person attempts to ride on the outside of a subway train, according to CNN.
“TikTok’s underlying business model focuses on maximizing young users’ time on the platform so the company can boost revenue from selling targeted ads,” the attorneys general said in a statement. “TikTok uses an addictive, content-recommendation system designed to keep minors on the platform as long as possible and as often as possible, despite the dangers of compulsive use.”
TikTok has seen a large number of states and lawmakers attempt to rein in the app’s practices, with 42 attorneys general calling for social media apps to have labels warning of the harms they can cause children. A ban on TikTok was passed earlier this year and is slated to go into effect on Jan. 19 unless it divests from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.
Bonta said the app takes time away from children and targets them before they’ve had a chance to develop defenses against addictive behavior.
“TikTok intentionally targets children because they know kids do not yet have the defenses or capacity to create healthy boundaries around addictive content,” Bonta said in a statement. “TikTok must be held accountable for the harms it created in taking away the time — and childhoods — of American children.”
James cited the app’s beauty filters as an aspect of the social media platform that could specifically harm the mental health of young women.
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“Beauty filters have been especially harmful to young girls,” James wrote. “Beauty filters can cause body image issues and encourage eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and other health-related problems.”
The states involved in the suit are California, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont, and Washington state. Washington, D.C., is also part of the suit.