TikTok is aware of the risks children and teenagers face on its platform, according to legal documents

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TikTok knows that its design features are harmful to young users and that its so-called tools to limit children’s time on the site are largely ineffective, according to internal documents and communications shared in a lawsuit filed by the state of Kentucky.

The details are part of a Kentucky lawsuit that contains internal communications and documents uncovered during a more than two-year investigation into the company by various states across the country.

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The Kentucky lawsuit was filed this week, along with separate complaints filed by attorneys general in a dozen states and the District of Columbia. TikTok is also facing other lawsuits from the Department of Justice and is itself suing the Department of Justice over a federal law that could ban it in the U.S. in mid-January.

The edited information – which was accidentally revealed by the Kentucky attorney general’s office and first reported by Kentucky Public Radio – touches on various topics, the most important of which is the extent to which TikTok knows how much time young users use the platform and how sincere. i.e. when scrolling the tool is intended to prevent overuse.

Beyond TikTok’s use among minors, the complaint said the short-form video-sharing app has prioritized “pretty people” on the platform and noted internally that some of its announced content moderation metrics are “generally misleading.”

The unfiled complaint, seen by The Associated Press, was sealed by a Kentucky state judge on Wednesday after state officials filed an emergency motion to unseal it.

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When asked for comment, TikTok spokesman Alex Haurek said: “It is not the responsibility of the Associated Press to publish information that is under court seal. Unfortunately, this complaint cherry-picks misleading quotes and takes outdated documents out of context to misrepresent our commitment to community safety.

“We have strong protections, which include proactively removing users whose age is suspected, and we voluntarily launched safety features such as standard screentime limits, family pairings, and privacy as standard for minors under the age of 16,” Haurek said in a prepared statement. . “We stand by these efforts.”

TikTok is used among young users

The complaint said TikTok had calculated how long young users could be hooked on the platform, and shared its findings internally in a presentation aimed at increasing user retention. The “habit moment,” as TikTok calls it, happens when a user has watched 260 videos or more during the first week of having a TikTok account. This can happen in under 35 minutes as some TikTok videos run for up to 8 seconds, the complaint said.

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The Kentucky lawsuit also cited a spring 2020 presentation from TikTok that concluded the platform had “reached the ceiling” among young users. At the time, company estimates showed at least 95% of smartphone users under the age of 17 used TikTok at least monthly, the complaint notes.

TikTok tracks metrics for youth users, including how long youth users watch videos and how many people use the platform each day. The company uses information obtained from these reviews to feed algorithms, which match content to people’s interests, and drive user engagement, the complaint said.

TikTok conducts its own internal studies to find out how the platform affects its users. The lawsuit mentions one group within the company, called “TikTank,” which noted in an internal report that compulsive use was “rampant” on the platform. It also cited an unnamed executive who said kids are watching TikTok because the algorithm is “awesome.”

“But I think we need to understand what it means for another opportunity. And when I say another opportunity, I mean sleeping, eating, and moving around the room, and looking other people in the eye,” said the unnamed executive, according to the complaint.

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Time management tools

TikTok has a daily screen time limit of 60 minutes for minors, a feature that was launched in March 2023 with the aim of helping teenagers manage their time on the platform. But Kentucky’s complaint says the time limit — which users can easily skip or turn off — is intended more as a public relations tool than anything else.

The lawsuit says TikTok measures the success of the time limit feature not by reducing the time teenagers spend on the platform, but by three other metrics — the first of which is “increasing public trust in the TikTok platform through media coverage.”

Reducing screen time among teenagers is not included as a metric of success, the lawsuit says. In fact, it is alleged that the company has planned to “reconsider the design” of the feature if the time limit feature causes teenagers to reduce their use of TikTok by more than 10%.

TikTok ran an experiment and found the time limit prompts shaved just half a minute off the average time teenagers use the app — from 108.5 to 107 minutes per day, according to the complaint. But despite the lack of movement, TikTok isn’t trying to make the feature more effective, Kentucky officials said. They say the ineffectiveness of the feature is, in many ways, by design.

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The complaint says a TikTok executive named Zhu Wenjia gave approval for the feature only if its impact on TikTok’s “core metrics” was minimal.

TikTok – including CEO Shou Chew – has talked about the app’s various time management tools, including videos TikTok sends users to encourage them to quit the platform. But TikTok executives said in an internal meeting that the videos were “useful,” but “not effective.”

TikTok has ‘put beauty first’ on its platform

In a section detailing the negative impact of TikTok’s face filters on users, Kentucky said that TikTok’s algorithm has “prioritized beautiful people” despite knowing that content on the platform can “perpetuate narrow beauty norms.”

The complaint alleges that TikTok changed its algorithm after an internal report stated that the app showed a “volume of … uninteresting subjects” in the main “For You” feed.

“By changing TikTok’s algorithm to show fewer ‘unattractive subjects’ in the For You feed, the Defendant is taking active steps to promote narrow beauty norms even though it may negatively impact young users,” the complaint said.

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TikTok’s ‘leakage’ rate

The lawsuit also targets TikTok’s content moderation practices.

It cites internal communications where the company lists moderation metrics as “generally misleading” because “we’re good at moderating the content we capture, but those metrics don’t account for the content we do.”

The complaint noted that TikTok was aware of — but did not disclose — a significant rate of “leaks,” or content that violated the site’s community guidelines but was not removed or moderated. Other social media companies are also facing similar problems on their platforms.

For TikTok, the complaint notes a rate of “leaks” including approximately 36% of content that normalizes pedophilia and 50% of content that glorifies minor sexual assault.

The lawsuit also accuses the company of misleading the public about moderation and allowing some popular creators deemed “high-value” to post content that violates the site’s guidelines.

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