(Photo Illustration by Drew Angerer | Getty Images)
Hundreds of thousands of children have bypassed TikTok’s minimum age restrictions to use the social media platform’s LIVE feature, which incentivizes sexual content, sometimes viewed by predatory adults. And an internal TikTok investigation suggested the platform’s virtual currency was being used in “major money laundering criminal patterns.”
That’s according to previously redacted documents that were released Friday as part of Utah’s ongoing lawsuit against TikTok, claiming the social media company is violating the state’s deceptive acts or practices law and consumer sales practices act.
Washington litigation
In October 2024, Attorney General Bob Ferguson sued TikTok in King County Superior Court, arguing that the platform was harming youth mental health.
TikTok, the attorney general’s office said, was “targeting youth with features that encourage compulsive and excessive use to get them hooked on the platform.” The lawsuit also argued that TikTok made misleading public statements about the app’s safety and content moderation practices despite research showing risks for young users.