Parents know exactly how addictive, and sometimes dangerous, social media can be. Officials in New Jersey agree: Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and the Division of Consumer Affairs announced that after a multiyear investigation, New Jersey is suing TikTok “for deceptive, unconscionable, and abusive business practices that harm the health and safety of New Jersey’s youth.”
The complaint, filed temporarily under seal in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Chancery Division, Essex County, alleges multiple violations of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act (CFA). Other Attorneys General are filing similar lawsuits across the country.
“Our investigation shows that TikTok knows about the dangerous effects of its platform on young users, and can mitigate these harms, but has deliberately chosen not to do so,” says Platkin. “As a parent and as the chief law enforcement officer for New Jersey, I’m here to tell TikTok, as I have told other social media companies in the past, that our kids are more than just data points to be monetized to advertisers to the detriment of their mental and physical health.”
TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance Ltd. In December 2017, ByteDance entered the American market by acquiring Musical.ly, a popular video app for lip-syncing and dancing that later had to pay the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) $5.7 million to settle allegations that it had illegally collected and used personal information from children without parental consent in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), according to the statement from the AG’s office. Despite this prior settlement, in August 2024, the FTC, along with the Justice Department, filed a federal lawsuit against TikTok for continuing to violate COPPA.
Today, TikTok maintains two platforms: a restrictive one for the Chinese market, and one for the rest of the world, which mainly targets the United States. The complaint alleges various examples of how TikTok “engaged in unconscionable, abusive, and deceptive business practices that are designed to hide the true purpose of the video app in the U.S.”
Especially through the use of “For You” video feeds, kids wind up with excessive, compulsive and habitual use of the site because the content is geared specifically toward them – and then data and targeted advertising are sold, according to the lawsuit. Officials are claiming this has the same effect as a slot machine, where “rewards” from the app give kids a dopamine response, so they continue on and become addicted without realizing it. Some of the features on TikTok that do this include beauty filters, autoplay, infinite scrolling, TikTok Stories, TikTok Live, push notifications, “likes” and comments.
And that’s been worrisome for parents because their children’s safety is at risk. Spending too much time on any social media platform can cause dysregulated sleep; trouble completing work and school assignments; impaired social connections; loss of analytical skills, memory formation, contextual thinking, conversational depth and empathy; increased depression, anxiety, self-harm, suicidal ideation, eating disorders and body dysmorphia; and increased peer pressure and self-esteem issues.
Even more alarming are the disturbing trends that pose serious danger to kids and teens. For example, in 2021, the “blackout challenge” offered guidance on how teens could asphyxiate themselves.
Still, last year, TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew testified to Congress that “safety, particularly for teenagers, is a top priority for us.” The allegations claim the people behind TikTok knew user safety was an issue but continue to mislead users, especially kids – and they claim it’s all for profit. TikTok also says it has a 60-minute time limit for teens – but you can easily get past that by reentering a passcode.
The lawsuit pushes for an injunction to stop TikTok, ByteDance, and associated entities from violating the CFA; civil penalties; and the disgorgement of any profits generated in New Jersey through this unlawful behavior, according to the statement.
New Jersy isn’t stopping there. Previously, a lawsuit was filed against Meta, the owner of Instagram and Facebook, for similar behavior. That complaint alleged that Instagram and Facebook were purposely designed with harmful features to keep children and teenagers online for ever-increasing amounts of time, while Meta falsely claimed the apps were safe. Both the Meta and TikTok complaints arose from the same national investigation, which began in 2022 and was co-led by New Jersey.
In addition to the lawsuits, Platkin also co-sponsored a bipartisan letter to Congress last month urging a U.S. Surgeon General warning on all algorithm-driven social media platforms.
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