California Attorney General Rob Bonta, seen here during an unrelated press conference last year in Santa Barbara, is among attorneys general looking into whether TikTok is knowingly inflicting harm on children.
A multitude of state attorneys general, including California Attorney General Rob Bonta, launched a probe into TikTok Wednesday into whether the popular social media platform is knowingly inflicting harm on children.
The bipartisan coalition of investigators said they will investigate whether TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance Ltd., violated state consumer protection laws and if the company knew about potential dangers posed to young children while promoting its platform.
“Our children are growing up in the age of social media — and many feel like they need to measure up to the filtered versions of reality that they see on their screens,” Attorney General Bonta said in a statement. “We know this takes a devastating toll on children’s mental health and well-being. But we don’t know what social media companies knew about these harms and when.”
Wall Street Journal investigations have found TikTok’s algorithm could promote harmful eating disorders and diet content to youths as well as content related to drug use, sexual abuse or depression.
TikTok is a social media platform featuring short videos of a variety of topics — from religious prayers to popular dances to funny animals to more serious content.
“We care deeply about building an experience that helps to protect and support the well-being of our community and appreciate that the state attorneys general are focusing on the safety of younger users,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement provided to the News-Press. “We look forward to providing information on the many safety and privacy protections we have for teens.”
Aside from California, attorneys general from Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Tennessee and Vermont are leading the investigation. Attorneys general from other states, including Connecticut and Missouri, for example, have also signed onto the probe.
The investigation follows on the heels of the group of eight launching a probe into Instagram, under the Meta Platforms Inc., umbrella, in November.
Then, Attorney General Bonta said: “For too long, Meta has ignored the havoc that Instagram is wreaking on the mental health and well-being of our children and teens. Enough is enough.”
During his State of the Union address Tuesday evening, President Joe Biden said he wanted to improve mental health among the nation’s children — something he said was a problem even before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr. Biden pointed to “bullying, violence, trauma and the harms of social media” as harming young people in the country.
“It’s time to strengthen privacy protections; ban targeted advertising to children (and) demand tech companies stop collecting personal data on our children,” President Biden said.
email: kschallhorn@newspress.com
