Children Are ‘Especially Vulnerable’ TikTok Targets, Alleges Utah AG

Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes (R) brought suit Tuesday against TikTok “to stop the harms it causes to Utah’s children” through its ongoing violations of the Utah Consumer Sales Practices Act (UCSPA), alleged Reyes’ complaint (docket 230907634) in the 3rd Judicial District Court in Salt Lake County, Utah. The suit alleges TikTok “intentionally designed and deployed an addictive product to bring itself financial gain by monetizing the attention of young users.” TikTok’s business practice quickly made it “into one of the world’s largest social media companies,” it said. TikTok charges premium rates to advertisers, “who flock to the company to place advertisements under the eyeballs of its 1.6 billion engaged users,” said the complaint. “The more time it can extract from users, the more money TikTok makes,” so it works to increase that time “at the cost of its users’ mental health,” it said. Children are “especially vulnerable target consumers” for TikTok, said the complaint. With young users, TikTok “can more easily exploit the not-yet-fully-developed brain’s reward system to create habitual dependence on the app,” it said. By combining big data and social network pressures with addictive design tactics, TikTok targets kids’ “particular susceptibility to dopamine manipulation to maximize engagement,” it said. TikTok’s conduct “is especially concerning for Utah, which has the largest percentage of children per capita” in the U.S., said the complaint. As TikTok’s popularity skyrocketed in recent years, Utah “unsurprisingly witnessed a worsening of mental health trends among adolescents,” it said. The Utah AG wants the court to preliminarily or permanently enjoin TikTok from violating the UCSPA, and to order TikTok to pay restitution and damages “well in excess of $300,000,” it said.