Florida’s attorney general is accusing social media platform TikTok of breaking the state’s social media laws, letting kids younger than 14 keep their accounts and deceiving parents about the platform’s risks in a new lawsuit.
Attorney General James Uthmeier is accusing TikTok and its parent company of violating the provisions of the 2024 law the legislature passed regarding social media use for minors.
The law bans platforms like TikTok from allowing people 13 years old and younger to have accounts, and requires that teens aged 14 or 15 must have parental consent in order to use the platform.
[WATCH: Florida’s new social media law: What parents, kids need to know]
The lawsuit points to TikTok’s rating in the Apple App Store as “13+,” saying TikTok maintains that content on the app may contain “infrequent/mild sexual content and nudity,” “infrequent/mild profanity or crude humour,” “infrequent/mild mature/suggestive themes,” and “infrequent/mild alcohol, tobacco or drug use or references.”
Uthmeier says the app should instead have a “16+” or “18+” rating, and TikTok is misrepresenting its content to evade parental controls on Apple devices.
The lawsuit also claims that TikTok uses a different version of the app outside the U.S. that protects young people from its more addictive features and algorithm, and chooses not to use that version inside the U.S.
Uthmeier is asking the court to enjoin TikTok from violating Florida law, and award the state punitive damages and civil penalties.
[READ the full lawsuit]