TikTok On Trial: Alabama Says Platform Hurts Kids Mental Health

TikTok is set to face the same legal scrutiny that has dogged other social media platforms as a trial commences in Alabama.

A jury is expected to hear accusations starting Monday that TikTok designed its platform to be addictive and has exploited young users. Last year, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall sued TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance, alleging the company had helped create a mental health crisis among young people.

"TikTok's so-called 'safety features' are a joke. They are nothing more than a marketing ploy to trick parents into trusting a product that TikTok knows full well is dangerous. Alabama families deserve the truth, and we will make sure they get it," Marshall said in filing the lawsuit.

Alabama alleges that TikTok's algorithm is engineered to keep minors endlessly scrolling and exposing them to content that promotes depression, eating disorders, self-harm, and drug use, as well as dangerous viral "challenges."

Further, the suit claims that TikTok's safety measures, like "Kids Mode" and "Restricted Mode," are easily bypassed and largely insignificant in protecting children from potentially harmful content.

"Over one-third of its daily users in the United States are fourteen or younger. TikTok's capture of the American youth market is no accident but is instead the result of a carefully executed campaign," the lawsuit states.

The trial begins in the wake of several high-profile judgments and settlements involving social media platforms.

In March, Meta was found to be a public nuisance in a case brought by New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez, and the company was ordered to pay $375 million in penalties. Another, $567 million was awarded in the second phase of the case, with most of that money being used to set up an abatement fund meant to address the mental health issues in children.

In total, the judgment against Meta was $942 million.

The company then tried and failed to prevent thousands of other, similar lawsuits from moving forward. These included lawsuits brought by state attorneys general across the country. Facing a potential legal reckoning, the company settled with the state attorneys general cases.

In August, Meta agreed to make significant changes to its platforms to protect children and pay $18 billion in damages to settle dozens of lawsuits filed by state attorneys general.

After announcing the settlement and the changes to its platforms, Meta urged competitors such as TikTok and YouTube to make similar changes and address underlying safety issues that could be adversely impacting the mental health of young people.

"While this is an important step, the fact is that teens move fluidly between dozens of apps a day. All platforms should empower parents and support teens by putting the same measures in place, because we know that when teens are restricted on one app, they simply move to another," the company stated. "For meaningful progress to happen, we urge TikTok and YouTube to join us and state attorneys general in adopting this new standard, to ensure teens use social media in a healthy and responsible way."