Florida's attorney general is taking TikTok to court, accusing the app of breaking the state's online child-safety law and misleading parents about what kids actually see on the platform. James Uthmeier filed a lawsuit on Monday alleging the company targets minors, violates House Bill 3—which took effect last year—and prioritizes "profit over children's safety," WFLA reports.
- "Time is up for TikTok," Uthmeier said at a press conference Monday, per Politico. "TikTok happens to be one of the most egregious social media applications when it comes to the dangers that are there at the fingertips of kids."
HB 3 bars under-14s from social media and requires parental consent for 15- and 16-year-olds. The state says TikTok lets kids under 14 sign up anyway and runs afoul of Florida's deceptive trade law by portraying its content as safer than it is. The suit notes TikTok's App Store listing says it's appropriate for users 13 and up and describes sexual content, drug use, profanity, self-harm, and eating disorders as "infrequent." Uthmeier's office calls that "blatantly false," saying such material appears "very frequently" and sometimes in "graphic detail."
Uthmeier accused TikTok of "openly defying" the law and said the company could be on the hook for "potentially billions of dollars" in damages. During Monday's press conference, he blasted features he said were designed to "keep kids stuck on those screens for hours," the Guardian reports. "Our evidence suggests that so many kids are on TikTok for upwards of six, seven, eight, or more hours a day," he said. "We are going to get our kids their lives back." A TikTok spokesperson said the company stands by its safety features and will defend its "strong record on minor safety" in response to Florida's lawsuit, reports Politico.
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