Technology
TikTok Executives Ignored Internal Child Safety Warnings, Court Records Reveal
Newly surfaced court records show TikTok staff repeatedly flagged severe child safety risks to executives who failed to act.
By Headlinne · Compiled from reporting by NPR, Verge and TechCrunch
TikTok employees repeatedly warned company executives about severe child safety risks on the video application, but leadership failed to take adequate action to address the dangers, according to newly surfaced court records.
The documents, which include employee depositions filed in federal court in March 2026, outline concerns regarding sexual exploitation, suicide content, and minors bypassing age restrictions.
The disclosures emerge from multi-district litigation initiated in 2022 that consolidates hundreds of lawsuits alleging social media platforms harm minors and conceal known risks.
Staff members stated that minors appeared in transactional sexual content on the platform, including users stripping on the Live feature in exchange for gifts convertible into real currency.
Employees warned that TikTok could financially benefit from the sexual material, raising potential financial crime concerns.
Reagen Maher, who held senior safety and investigations roles at TikTok between 2021 and 2024, described leading an internal push to elevate safety issues to top executives.
"I have been fighting about fixing this for months with people who didn't think the harms are severe enough," Maher said in an internal chat log read during her deposition.
Maher stated that senior leaders were aware of the sexual exploitation of minors before a 2022 Forbes article reported on the matter.
Another deposition from former head of safety Eric Han revealed concerns about harmful algorithm rabbit holes involving suicidal ideation and behavior in 2020.
Han said that TikTok failed to warn parents of the potential dangers their children faced on the platform.
The court documents also indicate that TikTok refrained from conducting user age surveys due to concerns about sharing the results with the Federal Trade Commission.
TikTok declined to provide a statement for NPR regarding the court documents, though the company directed reporters to previously published safety policies.
TikTok has previously settled several cases in the litigation, including a settlement with Alabama and an agreement with a Kentucky school district.
The cases against TikTok have not yet proceeded to trial.
Reporting from
- NPR NewsBalanced
TikTok staff raised child safety alarms. Court records show executives failed to act
- The VergeBalanced
TikTok employees said they knew about child safety issues, but execs failed to act
- TechCrunchBalanced
TikTok staff raised child safety concerns, but executives reportedly failed to act
How this article was made: Headlinne wrote it with AI from the 3 reports listed above. Direct quotes are checked word for word against those reports, every number appears in at least one of them, and no other sentence is copied from one. Photos are from those reports and credited to them. Each report’s page on Headlinne links to the outlet’s original.