In a new interview with Yahoo Finance, California Attorney General Rob Bonta explained why he and eight other attorneys general are investigating the effects of short-form video site TikTok on young users.
“There is mounting evidence, as we've seen — that of the devastating toll that social media has on our children's mental health and their well being,” Bonta told Yahoo Finance Live on Thursday. “And we want to know what TikTok knew about those harms to children, when they knew it, and what they did to increase engagement among our children.”
The bipartisan group of U.S. state attorneys general want answers from ByteDance’s popular video-sharing platform TikTok to evaluate suspected harm the social media platform is causing to children and whether it's violating U.S. consumer protection laws. TikTok attracts a large audience of minors to its platform. As of September, approximately 25% of its users were between 10 and 19 years old, according to Statista.
The investigation comes amid increasing scrutiny over the effects of social media on the mental health of young people, a danger President Joe Biden warned about just Tuesday in his State of the Union address. And last month, Senators proposed legislation aimed at shielding children from dangers associated with social media, a topic that's been the subject of multiple Congressional hearings.
In a statement to Yahoo Finance, ByteDance said, “We care about building an experience that helps to protect and support the well-being of our community and appreciate that the state attorneys general are focusing on the safety of younger users.” The company went on to say that it limits its features by age, provides tools and resources to parents, and designs policies with the well-being of young people in mind.
Bonta said while he appreciates that ByteDance intends to work with the attorneys general in their investigation, the company needs to show data to back up its words.
“We want to look at the facts that underlie those statements, what’s behind those statements, what actions are behind those statements. Actions matter,” he said. “Certainly declarations of values are important as well, but what have they actually done up to now with respect to seeking greater engagement for children?”
The attorneys general have taken no legal actions in connection with the investigation, which will examine how the app is engaging young users. In a press release, Bonta said the states want to learn TikTok’s techniques to boost the frequency and duration of user engagement for minors aged 13 years and older.
“A lot of that data, that shows the impact on children, shows that there is increased anxiety, increased depression, suicidal ideation, body image challenges,” Bonta said.
On Tuesday, Biden called on Congress to pass legislation that would prohibit social media companies from collecting and profiting off of the personal data of children. Biden described today's leeway for social media companies as a national experiment on minors.
"It’s time to strengthen privacy protections, ban targeted advertising to children, demand tech companies stop collecting personal data on our children," Biden said.
Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow Alexis on Twitter @alexiskweed.
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