Kansas AG files lawsuit against TikTok
TOPEKA (KSNT) - The Kansas Attorney General is suing a popular social media app.
Wednesday afternoon, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach announced his office filed a lawsuit in the Shawnee County District Court against TikTok. Kobach accuses the social media app of misrepresenting its age-appropriate in app stores, deceiving parents about its effectiveness of its parental tools and creating and aggressively promoting an addictive app that erodes the mental health of Kansas children, according to a news release from Kobach's office.
"TikTok deceived parents by saying that the app was safe and age appropriate," Kobach said. "In reality, the app has promoted filth, profanity, sexual content, and alcohol and drugs to Kansas kids. Even worse, it has used coercive algorithms that spike dopamine, keep kids on the app as long as possible, and facilitate downward mental health spirals. Kansas parents deserve the truth about the harm the app causes to young users, and Kansas kids should be protected."
According to the news release, the lawsuit alleges that TikTok was aware that its app was not safe for kids when the app was released in 2017, and that it misleads parents by marketing the app as age appropriate for kids 12 and older.
“Parents and caregivers believe their children are protected from images of intense sexual content, illicit drug use, and videos encouraging vaping and tobacco use, because TikTok deceives parents into believing the company hides this content from children," Deputy Attorney General Fran Oleen said. "In reality, this company created an app intentionally to hook Kansas children onto their salacious, dangerous, and damaging content at the price of those children's mental health. This damage will echo far into the future of our state, and TikTok must answer for its actions."
The petition from Kobach's office states that while TikTok offers "restricted mode" and "family pairing" options to keep Kansas children safe, those tools are ineffective.
“Kids in Kansas have been bombarded with problematic TikTok videos while lost in the addictive grip of TikTok’s auto scroll that affects not only their attention spans, but their mental health. Youth in Kansas frequently find themselves in an infinite hole of TikTok videos that tell them they are not good enough or attractive enough. These videos are often paired with advice on how to evade parents’ detection of eating disorders,” Assistant Attorney General Sarah Dietz said. “TikTok has misrepresented itself as safe, while it purposefully addicted minors and wreaked havoc on their mental health. Even when parents and caregivers try to create a safe environment for their children by using parental controls, they are deceived by TikTok’s false representations that the parental controls are effective.”
The Office of the Kansas Attorney General accuses TikTok of many violations of the Kansas Consumer Protection Act. The state is seeking civil penalties of $10,000 per violation and enhanced civil penalties of $20,000 for deceptive and unconscionable act against protected consumers. To read the full petition, click here.
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