TikTok Sued for Harming Children

 Using state consumer fraud laws, the Attorneys General of more than a dozen states coast to coast have sued TikTok for harming children and misleading parents about the platform's safety measures.  This is the latest salvo in an effort to curb social media effects on minors.  Several states and Congress are considering or have passed laws to regulate social media offerings to under-18s.  

WHY IT MATTERS

The AGs' actions claim that TikTok employs features designed to make the platform more addicting, that it touts “safety measures” that are easy to disable, and generally that it markets the platform as a safe place while building features that encourage compulsive use.  Perhaps most interestingly, the AG's cite findings that the platform uses a different and more limiting feature set for minors in its home country of China than it uses in the US.  This would seem to indicate deliberate decisions on the part of TikTok to engage US teens and children in a different way.  

The lesson?  Continue to exercise caution when interacting with minors online.  Although the big social media services drive the headlines, increased regulatory attention to privacy, addictive behavior, and other issues relating to the use of online services by under-18s is likely to affect other companies as well.