THE TIKTOK DILEMMA: IS IT SAFE FOR AMERICA'S YOUTH?

By Sydney Moore

The social media company, TikTok, has become a cultural sensation of sorts. According to the Pew Research Center, as of 2023, 33% of adults in the United States use the app, a rise from 21% in 2021.[1] This is especially true for American teens, with data showing that around 63% of teens ages 13 to 17 use the app, 57% of which state that they use the app on a daily basis, and 16% who report that they are using the app “almost constantly.”[2] With a large population of America’s youth using this platform, numerous concerns have risen regarding the safety and health of this minor population, including in the areas of teen mental health, privacy protections, and a targeted, “hyper-personalized” algorithm that has been compared to “the addictive nature of slot machines.”[3] However, the health and safety of our nation’s youth is not the only concern with this app, with a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on January 17, authorizing the federal government to shut down the app, or effectively ban it, which came after rising concerns about national security.[4] The app was shut down in the U.S. for a period of 12 hours on January 19, but was then restored due to an executive order signed by President Trump, which delayed the ultimate ban by 75 days.[5] While the national security-focused ban is a large part of the TikTok discussion, we will first examine the current lawsuits stemming from child protection concerns.

In August 2024, the United States Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission filed suit against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance for violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), for knowingly and unlawfully collecting personal information from children under the age of 13 without their parents’ consent.[6] This suit continued an ongoing dispute from 2019, in which the US government sued Musical.ly, the predecessor of TikTok, for these same violations, to which they received a court order to take measures to comply with COPPA.[7] The Department stated concerns that “millions of children under 13 [were] using the regular TikTok app, subjecting them to extensive data collection and allowing them to interact with adult users and access adult content.”[8]

Further, in October 2024, 13 states and the District of Columbia filed suits alleging violations to the consumer protection laws, alleging that TikTok is intentionally targeting children, who “do not yet have the defenses or capacity to create healthy boundaries around addictive content,” to not only addict them to consuming the content, but also exploiting their psychological vulnerabilities through use of features such as “beauty mode.”[9]Further, the state attorneys allege that the live stream feature is harmful, incentivizing the sexual exploitation of children through sending live streamers money through the form of TikTok “gifts.”[10]

While these suits highlight a large realm of potential child protection issues regarding TikTok, there has been some push back to a ban of the app. Content creators, some of which who are teens, have become a booming population on this app, with Goldman Sachs estimating the industry’s worth at approximately $250 billion, which is projected to double by 2027.[11] Many of these creators are pushing back on bans, stating that a ban would be “an extinction-level event for their careers,” since many creators do not have large followings on other platforms,.[12] And it is not just creators who are pushing back, but also those who have concerns that the ban would be unconstitutional. Journalist Evan Greer states that a ban would violate Americans’ right to free speech, which is not the only time a First Amendment argument has been presented.[13] TikTok itself also argues that the ban, also known as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, would also violate their First Amendment rights, as it is operated in the U.S. by TikTok, Inc., an American company incorporated and headquartered in California.[14] However, SCOTUS disagreed with the petitioners’ argument, stating that the Act satisfies the required intermediate scrutiny, by promoting the government’s substantial interest in national security, and “does not burden substantially more speech than is necessary to further that interest.”[15]

While it is clear that what happens with this app affects a large number of Americans of all ages, our focus here is the specific effect on children. It is a well-established principle that children also enjoy First Amendment rights, as established in SCOTUS decisions as early as the 1940s, and as late as decisions regarding social media in 2021.[16]With a large population of children using this app on a regular basis, and the potential for both their constitutional rights to be violated if the app is banned, as well as threats to their privacy, health, and protection if the app is allowed to continue, it is evident that our youth will continue to be a large part of the conversation going forward as we see what happens with TikTok in the United States.

[1] Kirsten Eddy. 8 facts about Americans and TikTok, Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/12/20/8-facts-about-americans-and-tiktok/ (last visited Mar. 2, 2025).

[2] Id.

[3] Bobby Allyn, More than a dozen states sue TikTok, alleging it harms kids and is designed to addict them, NPR (Oct. 8, 2024) https://www.npr.org/2024/10/08/g-s1-26823/states-sue-tiktok-child-safety-mental-health.

[4] Jenny Lyons-Cunha, TikTok Has Dodged the U.S. Ban-For Now. But the Clock Is Ticking, BuiltIn, https://builtin.com/articles/us-tiktok-ban (last visited Mar. 12, 2025).

[5] Id.

[6] Justice Department Sues TikTok and Parent Company ByteDance for Widespread Violations of Children’s Privacy Laws, U.S. Dep’t. of Just.(Aug.2, 2024) https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-tiktok-and-parent-company-bytedance-widespread-violations-childrens. See also Complaint at 2, U.S. v. Byte Dance, No. 2:24-cv-06535 (C. D. Cal. August 2, 2024).

[7] Justice Department, supra note 6.

[8] Id.

[9] Allyn, supra note 3. Beauty mode has been seen to cause “body image issues and encourage eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and other health-related problems.” Id. See also Cal. v. Meta, No. 4:23-cv-05448-YGR, 2024 WL 4532937 (N.D. Cal. Oct. 15, 2024).

[10] Allyn, supra note 3.

[11] Allyn, Bobby. Possible TikTok ban could be ‘an extinction-level event’ for the creator economy, NPR (May 6, 2024), https://www.npr.org/2024/05/06/1249047583/possible-tiktok-ban-could-be-an-extinction-level-event-for-the-creator-economy. 

[12] Allyn, supra note 12.

[13] Evan Greer, Opinion: Banning TikTok isn’t just a bad idea. It’s a dangerous one, CNN (Apr. 16, 2023), https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/16/opinions/tiktok-ban-congress-privacy-law-greer-ctpr/index.html.

[14] TikTok, Inc. v. Garland., 145 S. Ct. 57, 69 (2025).

[15] Id.

[16]Phillip Dynia. Rights of Students, Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University, https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/rights-of-students/.