Kentucky attorney general sues TikTok for its design to addict and harm youth
By Sarah Ladd
Kentucky Lantern
Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman is suing TikTok, accusing the social media platform of exploiting minors and being “designed to addict and otherwise harm” them.
In filing the lawsuit Tuesday in Scott County, Coleman joins a dozen states and Washington D.C. in seeking payouts for what they describe as a pattern of knowingly hurting youth.
The other states that have sued are California, New York, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont, Washington and the District of Columbia.
The Kentucky lawsuit says TikTok is designed to be “an addiction machine” that targets children.
Michael Hughes, a spokesperson for TikTok, said in a statement, “We strongly disagree with these claims, many of which we believe to be inaccurate and misleading.”
“We’re proud of and remain deeply committed to the work we’ve done to protect teens and we will continue to update and improve our product,” Hughes said.
What’s in the lawsuit?
Coleman’s lawsuit accuses the company of unfair and deceptive acts that violate Kentucky’s Consumer Protection Act, failing to warn consumers of the potential dangers of consuming the platform’s media and more.
“Unlike other consumer products that have appealed to children for generations — like candy or soda — with social media platforms there is no natural break point where the consumer has finished the unit of consumption,” the lawsuit states. “Instead, social media platforms are a bottomless pit where users can spend an infinite amount of their time.”
TikTok’s Hughes said the company does take steps to protect users.
“We provide robust safeguards, proactively remove suspected underage users, and have voluntarily launched safety features such as default screentime limits, family pairing and privacy by default for minors under 16,” Hughes said. “We’ve endeavored to work with the Attorneys General for over two years, and it is incredibly disappointing they have taken this step rather than work with us on constructive solutions to industry-wide challenges.”
Speaking in Northern Kentucky Wednesday, Coleman promised to “force (TikTok) to answer for creating and pushing an app designed specifically to addict and harm Kentucky’s children.”
“TikTok is more than trendy dances or funny videos. It’s a specially crafted tool to suck in minors, leading to depression, anxiety, altered development and more,” Coleman said.
“TikTok intentionally manipulates the release of dopamine in young users’ developing brains and causes them to use TikTok in an excessive, compulsive, and addictive manner that harms them both mentally and physically,” the Kentucky lawsuit says.
Forbes reported in 2022 that watching TikTok videos is like taking drugs, calling it a “pleasurable dopamine state” that is “almost hypnotic.”
Filed in Scott Circuit Court, the 125-page lawsuit contains frequent blocks of redacted material. Those include information from internal TikTok documents, that “for the time being remain subject to certain confidentiality agreements,” said Kevin Grout, a spokesman for Coleman’s office.
Coleman is seeking an injunction to halt TikTok’s “ongoing violations,” actual and punitive damages and penalties of up to $2,000 for each violation of the Kentucky Consumer Protection Act.
TikTok also is fighting a federal law enacted by Congress earlier this year that would ban the app in the U.S. unless its owner, ByteDance, sells it to a non-Chinese company by Jan. 19.
What does research show?
In a 2023 report, the U.S. Surgeon General said social media use among youth can have both positive and negative effects. For example, youth may be able to find community and connection through social media that they otherwise lacked. However, their mental health can decline with that use, and they can have increased anxiety and depression.
“Because adolescence is a vulnerable period of brain development, social media exposure during this period warrants additional scrutiny,” the surgeon general report said.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation, which advocates for children’s well-being, says tech companies need to: adequately and independently assess the impact of social media on children and adolescents; prioritize user health and safety when designing and developing social media products and services; and formalize a strategy for investigating the requests and complaints of young people, families, educators and others.
Terry Brooks, the executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, praised Coleman “for standing up against the social media giant – and standing up for Kentucky’s young people.”
“There is nothing more paramount than upholding our kids’ mental health and safety, especially as kids increasingly find themselves in digital spaces,” Brooks said. “The addictive nature of the social media platform TikTok can harm kids’ developing brain, expose them to unrealistic standards and unsafe situations, and put them at risk of sexually explicit content and exploitation.”
Read the complaint
(Editor’s note: Sylvia Goodman reports for Kentucky Public Radio that while large swaths of the Kentucky court filing are redacted, KPR was able to read the text underneath the digital redactions, “which appeared to primarily quote and summarize findings from internal TikTok documents and communications.” She writes that the lawsuit summarizes some of the redacted content, including content about the platform’s safeguards “negligible impact” and its intent to perpetuate “a narrow beauty norm.” In a separate story, Louisville Public Radio talks to Goodman about her reporting and what actions TikTok and the attorney general’s office have taken since. Another story, written in conjunction with NPR, digs into the redactions. NPR reports that upon the request of Coleman, a state judge has sealed the entire complaint.)
Kentucky Health News is an independent news service of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Kentucky, with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.
