TikTok staff warned executives of child safety risks, records show

Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 20 Oct, 14:20 · Archive

Court records reveal TikTok employees repeatedly flagged child safety concerns that executives failed to address appropriately.

Court records filed in federal litigation show that TikTok staff repeatedly raised child safety alarms that company executives failed to address. The depositions, obtained by NPR, reveal employees were frustrated by the lack of action on their concerns.

Reagen Maher, who held senior safety and investigations positions at TikTok between 2021 and 2024, flagged the prevalence of 'transactional sexual content' on the platform, describing minors stripping on TikTok's Live feature in exchange for 'gifts' that can be converted into real currency. Maher said she had been 'fighting about fixing this for months with people who didn't think the harms are severe enough'. She noted that senior leaders already knew about the sexual exploitation issue before Forbes reported on it in 2022.

Eric Han, TikTok's former head of safety, raised separate concerns in 2020 about harmful algorithm 'rabbit holes' that he described as having a 'real contagion effect' regarding 'suicidal ideation and behaviour'. The court records are connected to multi-district litigation initiated in 2022 that brings together hundreds of lawsuits alleging that TikTok and other social media platforms knew they were harmful to children and failed to disclose those risks.

How it is being reported

• TikTok employees said they knew about child safety issues, but execs failed to actTikTok was repeatedly warned by its own staffers about risks its platform posed to child safety, according to court records obtained by NPR. The publication reports that employees were frustrated over TikTok executives failing to appropriately act on concerns they raised, including minors bypassing age-restricted content, and appearing in "transactional sexual content" the company could […]The Verge · 20 Oct, 14:11
• TikTok staff raised child safety alarms. Court records show executives failed to actThe warnings surfaced in a trove of unreported court records. "I have been fighting about fixing this for months with people who didn't think the harms are severe enough," wrote one executive.NPR · 20 Oct, 10:00

In this story: TikTok · NPR · Reagen Maher · Eric Han · Forbes

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