TikTok employees said they knew about child safety issues, but execs failed to act

TikTok 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 financially benefit from.

The previously unreported depositions of TikTok staffers were filed in federal court in March, and connected to a multi-district litigation initiated in 2022 that brings together hundreds of lawsuits alleging that TikTok, Meta, Snap, and Google knew that they social media platforms are harmful to children, and failed to disclose those risks.

One deposition from Reagen Maher, who held senior safety and investigations positions between 2021 and 2024, described flagging the prevalence of “transactional sexual content” to then-TikTok CEO V Pappas, regarding minors stripping on TikTok’s Live feature in exchange for “gifts” that can be converted into real currency. Forbes reported on the issue in 2022, and Maher said the company was already aware of the sexual exploitation concerns before the article was published.

“I have been fighting about fixing this for months with people who didn’t think the harms are severe enough,” Maher said in an excerpt from an internal chat with a colleague. “Put simply, senior leaders know about this issue. There are some ongoing projects to fix parts of it, and frankly, I’m hoping [that] this article puts a fire behind other potential solutions.”

Another deposition from TikTok’s former head of safety Eric Han says he was concerned about harmful algorithm “rabbit holes” in 2020, describing them as having a “real contagion effect” regarding “suicidal ideation and behavior” in an internal TikTok report. Despite flagging that “minor safety is an urgent issue that we must address effectively,” Han said that TikTok failed to warn parents of the potential dangers of their child using the platform.