TikTok Staff Raised Child Safety Alarms; Court Records Show Frustration With Leadership
NPR reports that previously unreported court records show TikTok employees repeatedly raised concerns internally about risks the app posed to children, including sexual exploitation and exposure to suicide content, and were frustrated with how company leadership responded.
Employees raised the alarm about minors appearing in sexual content on the app, which viewers could pay to access and the company would profit from — a potential financial crime.
The employee depositions reviewed by NPR have not been submitted as evidence at trial because the cases against TikTok have yet to be heard before a jury.
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Reagen Maher, who held senior roles in safety and investigations at TikTok between 2021 and 2024, described going on a “crusade” for several months to elevate safety issues with some of TikTok's highest executives and testified that her findings were escalated to V Pappas, TikTok's chief operating officer at the time.
But an internal alarm is not a jury finding: the cases against TikTok have yet to be heard, and the depositions have not been submitted as evidence at trial. Separately, TikTok agreed to pay $8 million to settle a youth mental health and addiction lawsuit brought by a school district in rural Kentucky.