TikTok staff warned of child safety risks, but executives failed to act, records show
Court records obtained by NPR show that TikTok employees repeatedly raised child safety concerns that they felt executives did not adequately address. The depositions were filed in a US federal court in March.
Employees at the social network TikTok repeatedly warned company leadership about risks the platform posed to children's safety, but executives did not respond adequately, according to documents filed in a US federal court and obtained by the US public media organization NPR. The Verge reports that staff were frustrated that issues such as minors bypassing age restrictions, and minors appearing in "transactional sexual content" from which the company could profit, were not properly dealt with.
The court case
The previously unreported depositions of TikTok staff were filed in March. They are connected to a multi-district litigation begun in 2022, which combines hundreds of lawsuits. The suits allege that TikTok, Meta, Snap and Google knew their social media platforms were harmful to children and failed to disclose those risks.
Testimony on sexual content
Reagen Maher, who held senior safety and investigations roles from 2021 to 2024, said in her deposition that she told V Pappas, then TikTok's CEO, about the prevalence of "transactional sexual content". It involved minors stripping on TikTok's Live feature in exchange for "gifts" that can be converted into real money. Forbes reported on the issue in 2022, but Maher said the company already knew about the sexual exploitation concerns before the article appeared.
In an excerpt from an internal chat with a colleague, Maher wrote that she had spent months fighting for a fix with people who did not consider the harms severe enough. She noted that senior leaders know about the issue and that some projects were under way to address parts of it.
Algorithm risks
Eric Han, TikTok's former head of safety, said in his deposition that in 2020 he was concerned about harmful algorithmic "rabbit holes". In an internal report he described them as having a "real contagion effect" regarding suicidal ideation and behavior. Han said that although he stressed that minor safety was an urgent issue, TikTok failed to warn parents about the potential dangers of their children using the platform.
