Abstract:
Court testimony recently disclosed by US media shows that internal TikTok employees have repeatedly reported to management over the years the platform's child safety issues, including minors bypassing age restrictions to access inappropriate content, children suspected of being sexually exploited in live broadcasts, and recommendation algorithms that may lead young users to content related to self-harm and suicide. However, concerned employees said they were disappointed with the speed and intensity with which management responded to the issues and felt the company failed to adequately address the risks.
These testimonies were obtained by the National Public Radio (NPR) from court documents related to the lawsuit. The relevant materials involve TikTok employees' internal safety warnings and their descriptions of the company's management's handling of the situation. They provide new information for the outside world to understand how the platform internally assesses child safety risks.
These depositions were submitted to the federal court in March 2026 and were part of a multi-district consolidated lawsuit launched in 2022. The lawsuit brings together hundreds of cases against TikTok, Meta, Snap and Google, with plaintiffs alleging that the social media companies knew their platforms could cause harm to minors but failed to fully disclose the risks. Relevant accusations still need to be reviewed through judicial procedures, and employee testimony itself does not mean that the court has made a final determination of all disputed facts.
One of the highlights involves TikTok Live, TikTok’s live streaming feature. According to the testimony of Reagen Maher, a former senior employee of the Department of Security and Investigations, minors may engage in sexually explicit conduct during live broadcasts and receive financial rewards through virtual gifts sent by viewers. Virtual gifts on the platform can be exchanged for real money through related payment mechanisms, so employees worry that such interactions may evolve into transactional sexual exploitation, and the platform may also derive revenue from related transactions.
Macher held senior positions in security and investigation at TikTok from 2021 to 2024. She stated in her testimony that she had reported such issues to V Pappas, then TikTok CEO and head of operations, hoping that the company’s senior management would take more effective measures.
An internal chat record submitted to court materials shows that Maher complained to colleagues: "I have been arguing for months with some people who think these injuries are not that serious how to solve this problem." She also said that company executives are aware of related problems, and although some projects are trying to solve some risks, she hopes that external media reports will push the company to find more solutions.
This statement shows that, at least in Maher's description, the relevant issues are not completely out of the management's view, but there are obvious differences in the judgment of internal employees on the severity of the risk, the speed of solution advancement, and the actual response of management.
Children aged 13 to 15 appeared in approximately 112,000 TikTok Live videos in January 2022 alone, according to an internal investigation cited in employee testimony. Investigators also found that the relevant content may involve risks such as adult users inducing minors to engage in sexual acts and producing child sexual abuse materials. The internal investigation also pointed out that some live broadcasts that violated platform rules still generated considerable virtual gift revenue.
These findings raise the issue beyond whether content moderation is timely. If minors are sexually exploited during live broadcasts, and viewers can provide financial benefits to the anchors through virtual gifts, then how the platform identifies these transactions, blocks related behaviors, handles the revenue that has been generated, and whether to report to law enforcement agencies in a timely manner may involve more complex legal responsibilities.
Relevant U.S. laws have reporting requirements for child sexual abuse material, child sex trafficking, and online grooming. Legal experts point out that if a company has actual knowledge of relevant illegal activities but still benefits from them, the specific circumstances may raise issues with criminal liability, fund handling and anti-money laundering compliance. However, whether it constitutes a violation of the law needs to be specifically determined based on the information actually possessed by the company, the measures taken, and the applicable laws. It cannot be directly determined that it constitutes a crime just because the platform collects commissions from live broadcasts.
NPR has sought responses from TikTok on related issues, including whether the company reports all live videos that meet reporting conditions to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, whether it closes accounts suspected of paying for child sexual abuse content, and how it handles income deemed to come from illegal content. TikTok did not directly answer these specific questions, but provided the media with previously publicly released platform policies.
Another testimony turned attention to recommendation algorithms and the risks of young users being exposed to suicidal and self-harm content.
TikTok’s former security chief Eric Han said that as early as 2020, he began to worry that the recommendation algorithm might trap users in a “rabbit hole” where certain types of content are repeated. The so-called "rabbit hole" means that after a user watches content on a certain topic, the recommendation system continues to push more and more similar content, ultimately exposing the user to the same type of information for a long time.
This mechanism may increase user engagement in general entertainment content, but it may have more serious consequences if the content involves self-harm, extreme dieting, body image anxiety, or suicidal behavior.
In a 2020 internal report, Han described related phenomena as potentially having a "real contagion effect," particularly when it comes to suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and the way people discuss these issues on the platform. He believes that the safety of minors is an urgent issue that must be dealt with effectively.
According to his testimony, TikTok internally recognized at the time that continued exposure to certain types of content could have a negative impact on young users. However, Han said the company did not adequately warn parents about the risks associated with children using the platform.
The testimony sheds light on a long-running debate over whether social media platforms are required only to remove content that clearly violates their rules, or whether they should also proactively assess the cumulative impact that recommendation algorithms may have. Even if a single video does not clearly violate platform rules, the recommendation system may still change the frequency and scope of users' exposure to information by continuously pushing similar content. Such mechanisms may be of particular concern for minors whose mental states are still developing.
Age verification is also an important area for employees to raise red flags.
TikTok usually requires users to fill in their date of birth when registering, and states that it will combine account-related information to identify users who may have falsely reported their age, and then submit suspicious accounts to manual review. However, according to Maher’s testimony, there were some loopholes in the platform at the time, and minors could log in through third-party accounts such as Google, Facebook or Instagram and enter the TikTok experience originally intended for adults.
This means that even if the platform sets age restrictions, the actual execution results may still be affected by the third-party login process and account age identification mechanism. Employees said management was aware of the vulnerability, but the company did not specify how it would address the issue in response to media inquiries.
Similar challenges exist for home supervision functions.
TikTok launched the "Family Pairing" function in 2020, allowing parents to link their accounts with their children's accounts and set screen time limits, content filtering and privacy options. This feature is designed to allow parents to manage some usage behaviors without having to directly know the password of their child's account.
However, internal chat records submitted to the court in 2021 show that some teenagers' accounts have hidden entrances that can unlink family matching. Jordon Furlong, then head of the digital health product team, expressed concern in internal discussions that this would make the functionality moot.
TikTok stated that when a minor cancels family matching, the system will send a notification to the parent account. However, whether the notification mechanism can function in a timely manner is a different issue from whether parents check the reminder, whether they can understand changes in account behavior, and whether the platform can prevent other bypass methods.
These testimonies also involve how TikTok understands the true age distribution of its users.
According to NPR, court documents show that the company discussed how to investigate the age composition of U.S. users as early as 2018, but at that time some employees were worried that if the investigation results showed that there were a large number of children under the age of 13 on the platform, it might attract regulatory attention from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
The U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) mainly protects the online privacy of children under the age of 13 and usually requires companies to obtain verifiable parental consent when collecting relevant children's personal information. The relevant laws have important implications for how platforms collect age information, conduct user surveys, and process children's personal data.
According to testimony submitted to the court, discussions at the time involved how to avoid asking questions in the questionnaire that might directly reveal a child's age, such as what level of education a user is currently in. A manager in charge of TikTok Live mentioned in internal discussions that if the FTC learns of the relevant investigation, the regulatory agency may require the company to submit the results of the investigation, and he expressed concerns about whether the results will have an adverse impact.
This material reflects the potentially complex relationship between regulatory compliance and understanding your user base. Accurately understanding the age of users can help platforms design age-appropriate content and protective measures; however, if companies are worried about legal or regulatory risks caused by the investigation results, they may lack the motivation to fully understand the user group. As for whether the relevant discussions directly led to the company intentionally concealing the scale of underage users, it still needs to be judged based on complete evidence.
TikTok launched age-rated account settings for users aged 13 to 17 in 2021, imposing restrictions on some functions, including restricting private messages and the use of TikTok Live broadcasts. But employee testimony shows that simply setting an age threshold will not completely solve the problem, because users may bypass restrictions by falsely reporting their age, third-party logins or other account functions.
As of 2025, a Pew Research Center survey shows that about 68% of American teenagers aged 13 to 17 use TikTok. This data shows that the platform has broad influence among young people, and also means that issues such as age identification, recommendation algorithms and live broadcast security may affect a large number of underage users.
As the lawsuit advances, the legal pressure faced by TikTok is also increasing. In addition to this consolidated lawsuit involving multiple social media platforms, the company has also reached settlements in other cases. In May 2026, TikTok agreed to pay $8 million to resolve a youth mental health and addiction-related lawsuit brought by a school district in Kentucky; in September of the same year, the company also agreed to a $100 million settlement with the state of Alabama. Related lawsuits involved whether the platform designed products to easily make minors addicted and whether it recommended harmful content to them.
Settlement does not mean that the company admits all allegations, nor can it replace judicial determination of specific facts in other cases. However, these cases show that the way social media platforms are designed, the protection mechanisms for minors and companies' awareness of potential harm are becoming matters of intense scrutiny by regulators and courts.
TikTok has previously stated that the company is committed to providing age-appropriate experiences for teenagers and adopting multi-level age protection measures. The company stated in relevant instructions released in 2025 that there is still no unified method in the world that can reliably confirm the age of users and fully protect privacy. Therefore, the platform is exploring different solutions through technology, cooperation and regulatory communication.
There are indeed technical difficulties with age verification. Strict identity verification may increase user privacy risks and may also require users to submit sensitive personal information; if you only rely on the date of birth filled in during registration, you may be susceptible to false reporting of age. How to strike a balance between reliability, privacy protection and ease of use is a common problem faced by the entire social media industry.
But the controversy caused by the internal testimony disclosed this time is not just whether the technical solution is perfect. Questions raised by employees also related to whether companies take prompt measures after discovering risks, whether they fully inform parents, and whether they effectively manage the revenue that may be derived from harmful content.
NPR stated that TikTok did not provide a complete statement on the specific accusations when responding to relevant reports, but instead pointed to the company's previously publicly released security policies. As relevant materials enter the court record, outsiders will have the opportunity to further examine how these policies are implemented in actual operations and what decisions management made after receiving internal warnings.
Currently, the relevant litigation is still progressing, and the allegations in the employee testimony need to be judged in conjunction with more evidence and judicial procedures. But these materials at least indicate that some security personnel within TikTok have warned about issues such as minors being exposed to sexually exploitative content, bypassing age restrictions, and being guided by algorithms to self-harm and suicide content.
At the heart of the dispute will ultimately be a broader question: When a social media company has identified a risk of harm to minors through internal investigations or employee reports, to what extent should it assume proactive prevention responsibilities, and how should it prove that the measures it takes are sufficient to protect young users.
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