Court records filed in March 2026 contain depositions from former TikTok employees stating that they repeatedly warned company executives about risks to children on the platform, including sexual exploitation and suicide-related content. The documents, which were previously unreported, indicate that staff members were frustrated by the leadership’s response to these internal alarms. The filings are part of a multi-district lawsuit initiated in 2022 by plaintiffs alleging that social media companies designed their platforms to be harmful to minors.
The litigation involves several major technology companies, including Meta, Google, and Snap. While TikTok has settled several cases within this litigation—including an $8 million settlement with a Kentucky school district in May and a $100 million settlement with the state of Alabama in September—the specific employee depositions reviewed by NPR have not yet been submitted as evidence in a trial. TikTok declined to provide a statement to NPR regarding the documents, instead directing reporters to its published company policies.
According to the testimony of Reagen Maher, a former senior safety official at TikTok, senior leadership was aware of "transactional sexual content" involving minors appearing in and watching TikTok Live videos. Internal company records cited in the depositions show that in January 2022, an investigation found children between ages 13 and 15 appeared in 112,000 TikTok Live videos. The filings suggest that users under 18 used loopholes to bypass age restrictions and that a hidden link allowed minors to bypass "family pairing" features designed for parental oversight.
The legal and financial implications center on whether the company’s "gift" system—where viewers purchase digital currency to send to creators—constitutes money laundering or child sex trafficking violations if the company profited from sexual content involving minors. Federal law requires platforms to report child sexual abuse material to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) when they have actual knowledge of it. If these transactions are classified as regulated money transmissions, the company could face criminal liability for processing funds derived from illegal acts.
The case also highlights how companies handle regulatory oversight; the documents state that in 2018, TikTok executives avoided specific demographic surveys of their users to prevent the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from obtaining data that might show violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). COPPA prohibits the collection of data from children under 13 without parental consent. As of January 22, 2026, TikTok's U.S. operations are majority-owned by American investors. Future legal proceedings will determine if the depositions and internal chat logs will be admitted as evidence in ongoing trials.