Employees Warned of Risks to Minors, Court Records Show
TikTok employees repeatedly warned the company about the dangers its platform posed to children, according to court records obtained by NPR. The documents describe staff frustration with how executives responded to concerns about risks to minors, including sexual exploitation and exposure to suicide-related content.
Depositions filed in March 2026 are casting new light on TikTok's child safety practices as scrutiny of social platforms intensifies.
Warnings About Sexual Content and Loopholes
According to NPR, TikTok employees warned that minors were appearing in sexual content available for purchase on the platform, raising concerns that the company could profit from potentially illegal activity. Staff also flagged that minors were exploiting loopholes to access age-restricted content and hide their activity from parents.
In addition, the court documents show that TikTok declined to conduct surveys to determine the age of its users, reportedly out of concern that it would have to share the results with the Federal Trade Commission.
Mounting Legal Pressure Across the Industry
TikTok, along with Meta, Google, and Snap, faces hundreds of lawsuits consolidated in federal court. The suits allege that these companies' platforms harm minors and that the companies failed to disclose known risks to young users.
TikTok has reached settlements in several cases before they went to trial, including one in Los Angeles where a jury found that Meta and YouTube had designed their platforms to be addictive to young users.
TikTok did not immediately respond to TechCrunch's request for comment.
via TechCrunch