// THE VERGE — MOBILE & WEB
TikTok employees said they knew about child safety issues, but execs failed to act
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‘I have been fighting about fixing this for months with people who didn’t think the harms are severe enough.’
‘I have been fighting about fixing this for months with people who didn’t think the harms are severe enough.’
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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.