Archive photo, June 2024: TikTok’s Culver City office building. Coolcaesar / CC BY 4.0, cropped
West Virginia’s attorney general sued TikTok on Thursday, alleging the app keeps children scrolling while leaving safety gaps that parents cannot easily see.
Attorney General JB McCuskey said the consumer protection complaint was filed in the Circuit Court of Kanawha County. In an October 29 announcement, his office accused TikTok of violating numerous state consumer protection laws through the design and operation of its app.
The claims are allegations by the attorney general, not findings by a court. The lawsuit seeks changes to the platform as well as financial relief.
What the state says its testing found
McCuskey’s office said its Consumer Protection Division tested the app with two accounts: one registered to an adult and another to a 13-year-old girl. According to the office, the child account repeatedly received sexually suggestive content, while the adult account largely received content about ordinary interests such as home improvement and local restaurants.
The attorney general alleges that TikTok encourages continuous use and uses recommendation systems to target younger users, without adequately disclosing safety gaps to parents and caregivers.
“West Virginia parents should not have to compete with an algorithm built to keep their kids scrolling, while targeting them with sexualized content,” McCuskey said in the release.
The complaint also alleges that platform features make children discoverable and reachable, exposing them to predators. The office said information visible through a child’s social media presence can allow someone to pose as a peer or a friend’s acquaintance and gain trust before a parent knows contact has occurred.
Why the complaint matters to parents
The state’s argument is that parents cannot make informed decisions about their children’s use of an app if important risks are concealed. That is the consumer protection issue at the center of the announcement, rather than a court determination that TikTok has broken the law.
The release also says the complaint cites West Virginia University research associating more frequent TikTok use with more depressive symptoms among children in the state. An association does not, on its own, establish that the app caused those symptoms.
What West Virginia is asking the court to do
The attorney general’s office is seeking restitution, the return of what it calls ill-gotten gains, civil penalties, attorneys’ fees and costs. It also seeks an injunction requiring effective child-predator detection measures and protections, along with other equitable remedies requiring safer product design going forward.
Those are requests for relief. The announcement does not establish that the court has granted them or ordered new safety measures.
For parents following the case, the distinction matters: the filing starts a legal challenge to the platform’s practices. It is not a final ruling on the allegations.
JBizNews Desk | Charleston
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