Written by PTC | Published October 18, 2024
Last week, 14 state Attorneys General filed lawsuits against the popular social media platform TikTok, alleging that the platform is designed to be addictive to children and teens.
In 2022, several states joined together to launch an investigation into TikTok and its possible harmful effects on teen mental health. These new lawsuits stem from that investigation, which found that TikTok knew exactly how many videos it took for a teen to become addicted to the platform: 260.
In less than 35 minutes, a teen can become hooked on TikTok.
What’s even more disturbing, TikTok’s own internal investigation revealed that teens as young as 15 were being paid by adults to strip on TikTok’s “live” feature. According to reporting from NPR, “Officials at TikTok discovered that there was ‘a high’ number of underage streamers receiving a ‘gift’ or ‘coin’ in exchange for stripping — real money converted into a digital currency often in the form of a plush toy or a flower.”
“TikTok executives were acutely aware of the potential harm the app can cause teens, but appeared unconcerned.”
TikTok knew this was happening, and did nothing to stop it. According to NPR, “TikTok executives were acutely aware of the potential harm the app can cause teens, but appeared unconcerned.”
You may recall that Frances Haugan, a Facebook whistleblower, testified in front of a Senate committee in 2021 that Meta’s (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram) own internal investigation showed, “We make body image issues worse for 1 in 3 teen girls” and, “Teens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression.” According to Meta’s own internal research, 6% of American users and 13% of British users traced the desire to kill themselves to Instagram.
The bottom line is this: These tech companies KNOW their product is putting children in harm’s way. They know it. And they do nothing to mitigate the harm.
That’s why it is so critically important for Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act.
Because the record shows that these social media companies will not stop putting children in harm’s way unless they are forced to. They will continue to exploit children for financial gain.
These revelations about TikTok should alarm you and it should spur Congress to finally act!
Unfortunately, there are reports that Speaker Mike Johnson is reluctant to move the bill forward. BigTech lobbyists have convinced a several lawmakers that KOSA will have a chilling effect on free speech – but that’s simply not the case.
Will you help us continue our efforts to hold BigTech accountable by making a gift today? Your generous donation will help us to have an even greater impact by reaching more concerned parents and activists like you.
And please, continue to call your elected representatives and urge them to step-up efforts to protect kids online.