TikTok employees warned company executives about children facing sexual exploitation, exposure to suicide related content and failures in parental safety protections, but some staff members say their concerns went unresolved.
According to an October 20 investigation by NPR, depositions filed in federal court in March 2026 reveal years of internal disagreements over TikTok child safety practices. Employees described warning senior leadership about dangerous activity involving minors, including situations where the platform could financially benefit from inappropriate livestreams.
One major concern involved TikTok Live, where viewers can purchase virtual gifts that creators may convert into money.
Reagen Maher, who held senior safety and investigations positions at TikTok between 2021 and 2024, testified that she spent months trying to convince company leaders to address sexual exploitation concerns. Maher said her findings reached V Pappas, who was TikTok’s chief operating officer at the time.
In an internal message discussed during her deposition, Maher wrote, “I have been fighting about fixing this for months with people who didn’t think the harms are severe enough.”
Her warnings reportedly came before a 2022 Forbes investigation exposed minors engaging in sexual activity during livestreams, sometimes in exchange for digital gifts.
According to NPR, an internal investigation identified children between 13 and 15 years old appearing in approximately 112,000 TikTok Live videos during January 2022 alone. That figure represents livestreams involving young teenagers, not a confirmed number of sexually explicit videos.
The findings raised concerns about adults grooming children, the creation of child sexual abuse material, and revenue generated from livestreams violating TikTok’s policies.
NPR reported that internal investigators identified significant revenue from gifts sent during broadcasts that broke the platform’s rules. Whether that activity created criminal liability has not been established in court.
The employee testimony also identified weaknesses in TikTok’s age restrictions.
Maher said children could access an adult version of the platform by registering through Google, Facebook or Instagram. She testified that senior leadership was aware of the loophole.
Parental supervision tools faced similar problems. NPR reviewed a 2021 internal discussion revealing that teenagers could use a hidden link to disconnect their accounts from Family Pairing, TikTok’s parental monitoring feature.
TikTok said parents receive notifications when teenagers disconnect their accounts. However, employees questioned whether the workaround undermined the purpose of the protection.
Another concern involved the company’s knowledge of how many children were using its services.
Court testimony described a 2018 discussion in which executives avoided survey questions that could reveal whether elementary school students were using TikTok.
According to NPR, employees worried that collecting the information could prompt scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which protects personal information belonging to children under 13.
Internal warnings also addressed TikTok’s recommendation algorithm.
Eric Han, the company’s head of safety from 2019 to 2023, testified about a 2020 internal report identifying dangerous patterns in which users could repeatedly encounter content involving body image issues or suicide.
Han acknowledged the potential risks of these recommendation patterns and said TikTok did not warn parents about the dangers identified internally.
TikTok strongly disputes how the allegations have been characterized.
In an emailed statement, a company spokesperson said, “These citations and claims are clearly cherry-picked at the behest of trial lawyers and used to inaccurately rewrite our history and mislead the public about our commitment to youth safety and how our platform works.”
The spokesperson continued, “It’s unfortunate that NPR has chosen to ignore the numerous documents and resources we have provided that demonstrate how these claims mischaracterize our record and platform features.”
TikTok also defended its investments in protecting younger users.
“We have invested billions of dollars in Trust & Safety and rolled out more than 50 preset safety, privacy, and security settings for teens, including Family Pairing, which helps parents and guardians customize the experience for their teens. We remain steadfast in our commitment to the well-being of our community.”
The TikTok child safety allegations involve a platform widely used by American teenagers.
According to the Pew Research Center, 68 percent of Americans ages 13 to 17 use TikTok. Approximately 21 percent reported using the platform almost constantly, including 37 percent of Black teenagers surveyed. These figures measure platform usage, not the prevalence of harm.
TikTok also faces extensive litigation involving allegations that social media companies knowingly exposed young users to harmful experiences.
The coordinated federal lawsuits, which began in 2022, also involve Meta, Google and Snap. Plaintiffs accuse the companies of designing products that harm minors while failing to disclose known risks.
In March 2026, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google negligent in a social media addiction lawsuit and awarded a combined $6 million in damages.
TikTok and Snap settled with the plaintiff before trial. The jury’s decision therefore did not establish liability against TikTok.
TikTok subsequently agreed to an $8 million settlement involving a Kentucky school district’s social media addiction claims.
In September, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced another agreement requiring TikTok to pay the state at least $100 million, potentially increasing to $300 million if specified conditions are met.
The Alabama settlement also requires stronger age verification, expanded parental controls, restrictions on overnight access, and a default feed without personalized recommendations for teenage users.
