TikTok Duped Iowans About Kids' Access to 'Inappropriate' Content, Says AG

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird (R) sued TikTok for deceiving Iowa parents about “children’s widespread access to inappropriate content” on its platform, said her Wednesday news release announcing a fraud complaint against the social media platform in Iowa District Court for Polk County in Des Moines.

TikTok “has kept parents in the dark,” said Bird. “It’s time to “shine a light on TikTok for exposing young children to graphic materials such as sexual content, self-harm, illegal drug use, and worse,” she said. TikTok has “sneaked past parental blocks by misrepresenting the severity of its content,” she said.

A TikTok spokesperson emailed Friday: "TikTok has industry leading safeguards in place for young people, including parental controls and time limits for those under 18. We are committed to tackling industry wide challenges and will continue to prioritize community safety."

Arkansas, Indiana, Montana and Utah have filed similar lawsuits against TikTok and parent ByteDance. Montana AG Austin Knudsen (R) is appealing the injunction in two consolidated cases in which the plaintiffs argue that the state’s SB-419 law banning use of TikTok statewide violates the First Amendment and the Constitution’s supremacy and commerce clauses (see 2401030007). An Indiana state judge dismissed a suit in November accusing TikTok of deceiving users about the level of inappropriate content on its platform.

TikTok's representations to Iowa parents and children that inappropriate content on its platform, including drugs, nudity, alcohol, and profanity, is "infrequent" are "lies," said Bird's complaint. Music, videos and other content on TikTok contain “sexual content, drugs, alcohol, intense profanity, self-harm messages, and other X-rated content” that are “frequently and easily accessible at the fingertips and swipes of Iowa tweens and teens,” it said.

TikTok claims a “12+” rating in Apple’s App Store and represents that its app contains “infrequent” or “mild” sexual content and nudity, profanity or crude humor, mature themes and alcohol, tobacco or drug use, the complaint said. In reality, the TikTok app has “frequent and intense sexual content and nudity, profanity and crude humor, mature and suggestive themes and alcohol, tobacco, and drug use and references,” it said. Iowa’s investigation shows that such content is present “in large quantities” on TikTok and accessible to 13-year-old users, the complaint said.

TikTok “intends to evade” Apple’s parental controls by applying the 12+ rating, the complaint said. A more accurate rating based on content available to kids on the platform would be 17+, it said. At that rating, “parental restrictions on phones would prevent many kids from downloading it,” it said.

TikTok’s display of profanity and crude humor on its app, despite its claims that such content is infrequent or mild, is an “unfair practice,” said the complaint. Any consumer benefit to exposing young Iowans to profanity and crude humor or other cited objectionable content “is far outweighed by the substantial, unavoidable injury to young Iowans, who cannot unsee harmful content once TikTok has exposed them to it,” it said.

The complaint cited videos of young TikTok users showing how to make alcoholic drinks, including one in which a woman poured a premixed cocktail into a Starbucks iced tea drink, saying “It tastes like no alcohol.” The video had over 747,000 “likes,” the complaint said. A clip of a girl saying she hadn’t eaten for three days was liked by 88,000 users and recommended to a 13-year-old user by TikTok’s For You feed algorithm, it said.

Bird seeks a preliminary and permanent injunction under the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act to compel TikTok to “cease its deceptive, misleading, false and unfair statements and conduct related to the frequency and severity of alcohol, tobacco, and drug content, sexual content, nudity, mature/suggestive themes, and profanity on the TikTok app,” the complaint said.

The proposed injunction also covers “inaccurate age-rating statements in the App Store” and TikTok’s other “misleading, deceptive, and unconscionable statements about Restricted Mode, in the TikTok app’s Community Guidelines, and in the Google Play and Microsoft stores,” it said. Though TikTok claims restricted mode limits, the appearance of content not appropriate for all audiences, the feature instead “restricts virtually no content available on TikTok,” the complaint said. Mature content “remains widely available to users” with restricted mode enabled, including in search results and For You feeds, it said.

Bird claims violations of Iowa’s Consumer Fraud Act and deception, false promise, misrepresentation and unfair practices under Iowa code 714.16 and seeks penalties of $40,000 per violation. The AG also seeks disgorgement of awards or property to the state to be used for the administration and implementation of the state’s Consumer Fraud Act, the complaint said.