TikTok Lawsuits for Child Harm and Addiction (2024)

Numerous psychologists and studies from groups like Amnesty International and the Center for Countering Digital Hate say that TikTok’s platform design promotes self-harm, eating disorders, and other dangerous behavior onto app users. Amnesty International found that “TikTok’s very business model is inherently abusive and privileges engagement to keep users hooked on the platform”  

Children report a wide array of mental health issues including:  

• Depression                             
• Self-harm 
• Suicidal ideation                   
• Anxiety 
• Suicide
• Eating disorders      

If your child experienced any of these illnesses or symptoms, we may be able to represent you in a lawsuit seeking to recover compensation that can help with therapy, hospitalizations, and medical bills. If your child died by suicide, you may be eligible to file a legal claim for wrongful death. 

TikTok makes billions of dollars each year. Lawsuits allege that TikTok designed its platform to be addictive because it correlates to profits: the more time a user is on its platform, the more ads it can sell. This is particularly damaging for children and teens. TikTok knew the harm it was causing, and could have stopped it, but didn’t, according to lawsuits. 

• TikTok is designed to be addictive: Lisa Dittmer, Amnesty International Researcher, explains that “TikTok’s manipulative and addictive design practices,” are “designed to keep users engaged for as long as possible[…]The platform’s algorithmic content recommender system, credited with enabling the rapid global rise of the platform, exposes children and young adults with pre-existing mental health challenges to serious risks of harm.”   
• Similarly, “Within 2.6 minutes, TikTok recommended suicide content. Within 8 minutes, TikTok served content related to eating disorders.” – The Center for Countering Digital Hate, on study of accounts for 13-year-old girls 
• “I think we need to look at social media like cigarettes, and just say it’s just a harmful product, it’s especially harmful for children, and we should make it much tougher for kids to access it.” – Max Fisher, investigative journalist and author of The Chaos Machine 

Congress is now investigating the effects of social media addiction on children and teens, and at a recent Congressional hearing demanded the CEO of TikTok to account for the way it and other social media companies are hurting children. One senator stated that social media companies like TikTok “have a product that’s killing people,” and another senator criticized TikTok for failing “to police themselves at our kids’ expense.” Families are increasingly aware that they’re not alone in their experiences but have yet to see any accountability. 

The TikTok addiction lawsuits are not part of a class action lawsuit but are a group of individually filed cases known as a mass tort lawsuit. These are individual cases that share a common issue: children suffering injuries and harms from TikTok. Each person allegedly harmed by TikTok files their own individual case , but many victims share similar claims against TikTok. 

Parents are making their voices heard by joining the lawsuits against TikTok. They recognize that it’s not their fault or their child’s fault, that they’re not alone, and that parents can do something to hold social media companies accountable. They are seeking justice for their child and trying to ensure that no child is harmed again. 

Discussing your child’s physical and mental health can be incredibly tough. Contact our trauma-informed legal team to confidentially discuss the best options for you and your family. Consultation calls are entirely free and confidential. 

Gibbs Law Group is leading trailblazing fights to hold social media companies accountable for the harm they cause. TikTok and other social media platforms claimed that they were immune from certain legal claims and argued that these lawsuits should be dismissed, but our law firm successfully argued that the lawsuits should be allowed to move forward. The federal and state court judges overseeing the case agreed, allowing the lawsuits to move forward. These noteworthy legal victories were featured in BBC, Bloomberg Law, Reuters, The Verge, and more.