West Virginia sues TikTok, alleging app is ‘harming kids’

West Virginia has sued TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, accusing the social media giant of deliberately keeping children hooked on its app while exposing them to sexualized content and potential predators.

The lawsuit filed Thursday alleges TikTok violated state consumer protection laws by using addictive features to encourage excessive screen time among children while misleading parents about the effectiveness of its safety measures.

“West Virginia parents should not have to compete with an algorithm built to keep their kids scrolling, while targeting them with sexualized content,” West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey said in a statement. “TikTok left critical safety vulnerabilities unaddressed and put growth of the app ahead of children’s safety.”

McCuskey’s office said investigators created two TikTok accounts, one registered to an adult and another to a 13-year-old girl. The underage account repeatedly received sexually suggestive videos, while the adult account was largely shown content about home improvement, local restaurants and other everyday interests.

The complaint, filed in Kanawha County Circuit Court, ripped TikTok’s recommendation algorithm and features such as endless scrolling, push notifications and likes and comments. State officials argue those features exploit children’s developing brains and make it harder for underage users to stop using the app.

The state also accused the company of overstating the effectiveness of its parental controls and failing to address safety gaps that could allow predators to contact children.

“Parents have a responsibility to monitor what their kids are doing online, absolutely. But they are cut off at the knees when companies like TikTok do nothing to close safety loopholes and conceal risks of their platform from parents,” McCuskey said.

The lawsuit comes as TikTok faces mounting legal pressure over its safeguards to protect underage users.

Earlier this month, a Texas judge ruled that TikTok misled consumers about its efforts to filter inappropriate content for minors, finding that the company’s claims about its content moderation policies violated state consumer protection law.

TikTok and ByteDance also agreed earlier this month to pay $400 million to settle a Justice Department lawsuit alleging the platform illegally collected personal information from children younger than 13 without parental consent.

In September, TikTok reached a separate settlement agreement with Alabama worth more than $100 million over allegations that its platform was deliberately designed to be addictive to minors. The agreement includes additional safety protections such as screen time limits and stronger parental controls.