Pennsylvania sues Tik Tok, Snapchat over failure to protect children

Last month, Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday announced the commonwealth has filed lawsuits against Snapchat owner Snap, Inc., and TikTok, Inc., for what it believes are the social media companies failures to warn users of addictive behaviors and failing to safeguard children from compulsive use.

The commonwealth alleges both Snapchat and TikTok lie about how often adult-themed material - such as sexual content and nudity, suicidal ideation, and drug use - appears on its platform to achieve an age-13+ app rating in App Stores.

Regarding TikTok, Sunday said the popular social media company “has built its empire based on a model of addictiveness at all costs, and expanded that empire using deception about what sort of content is viewable for kids. This is not an indictment against modern technology, or a scolding assessment of social media as a whole - rather, this is an action to hold accountable a company that values dollars over mental wellness.”

In a recent Facebook post, Sunday highlighted what his office believes is particularly problematic about Snapchat; its ability to lead users to believe things they share over its platform are not permanent, which can encourage younger users to post things they typically might not. Sunday said that while photos and messages disappear from the ap once they are viewed, there are other ways to save items shared on Snapchat.

“We all know once something is sent or posted on the internet it is never truly gone. a simple screenshot can turn what they thought was a temporary photo into a permanent nightmare,” said Sunday.