TikTok Staff Warned About Child Safety Risks, but Executives Didn't Act
TikTok employees repeatedly warned company leaders that the app was putting children at risk, but executives often failed to act, according to court records reviewed in a new investigation.
The records include depositions from former TikTok staffers filed in March as part of a massive federal lawsuit against social media companies, NPR reported. The case, which also names Meta, Google and Snap, accuses the platforms of being designed in ways that harm users under 18.
The depositions have not yet been presented as evidence at trial.
Warnings About TikTok Live
Some of the most serious concerns centered on TikTok Live, the app's livestreaming feature.
An internal investigation found that children ages 13 to 15 appeared in 112,000 TikTok Live videos in January 2022 alone. The report warned that adult predators were grooming children on the platform.
Employees also flagged that viewers could use TikTok's virtual gifts, which are bought with real money, to pay for sexual content involving minors. Because TikTok takes a cut of those gifts, staffers warned the company was profiting from it.
Reagen Maher, who worked in senior safety and investigations roles from 2021 to 2024, said her findings were shared with then-Chief Operating Officer V Pappas. "I have been fighting about fixing this for months with people who didn't think the harms are severe enough," Maher wrote in an internal chat.
Loopholes Let Kids Slip Through
Staffers also raised alarms about gaps in TikTok's age protections.
According to the records, children could reach an 18-plus version of TikTok by signing up through Google, Facebook or Instagram. "Put simply, senior leaders know about this issue," Maher told a colleague.
TikTok's Family Pairing feature, which lets parents link to their teen's account, also had a hidden link that allowed teens to unlink from parental controls. "This renders the function kinda pointless," Jordon Furlong, a former product manager for digital wellness, wrote in an internal chat.
The company also reportedly held off on surveying users about their ages, in part because of concerns about federal regulators. "If the FTC knows about this survey, they might want us to submit the results," Adam Wang, who led TikTok Live in 2018, wrote.
Concerns About Harmful Content
Employees also warned about content related to suicide and self-harm. In a 2020 internal report, Eric Han, TikTok's head of safety from 2019 to 2023, described a "real contagion effect" around how suicidal thoughts and behavior were discussed on the platform.
Han warned that the app's algorithm could pull young users into "rabbit holes" of harmful content about body image or suicide, and that the platform did not warn parents about those dangers.
A 2020 draft policy review went even further. "Social media is inherently dangerous, and all minors are at risk when they engage on the platform," it said.
What TikTok Says
TikTok declined to give NPR a statement on the issues raised in the court records but pointed to its published policies. The company said it has an anti-money laundering program that meets international standards, notifies parents when a teen unlinks from Family Pairing and uses account data to flag users who may have entered the wrong age.
TikTok did not answer questions about whether it reported all Live videos containing child sexual abuse material to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The company has already settled some youth safety cases. In September, it agreed to a $100 million settlement with Alabama over claims it made its platform addictive to minors, and in May it agreed to pay $8 million to a Kentucky school district, TechCrunch and NPR reported.
Why It Matters for Parents
TikTok is hugely popular with young people. About 68% of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 used TikTok in 2025, according to the Pew Research Center.
Concerns about kids and social media have pushed governments around the world to act. Australia even banned social media for kids under 16, though many still find ways onto the apps.
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.
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