“It would be outrageous enough to endanger our kids the way TikTok has—even if it was unintended,” said outgoing Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes. “But the fact that it serves up minors on ‘TikTokLive,’ knowing the danger, understanding the damage, and still monetizing the exploitation of our kids is unconscionable.”
The state of Utah has unsealed material indicating that TikTok has long known that its video livestreams are used to encourage sexual conduct and exploit underage children, yet “profited [so] significantly” that it turned a blind eye to obvious predation.
According to Reuters, the allegations were revealed on Friday, weeks ahead of a scheduled nationwide ban on TikTok. The lawsuit, filed in June of 2024, accuses TikTok of using its monetization features to incentivize children to perform “sexually explicit acts” on TikTok LIVE.
A TikTok spokesperson has since told the Utah News Dispatch that the lawsuit effectively ignores the safety measures that the company has implemented. These features include “robust safety protections,” screen time limits for designated teen accounts, and tools that allow parents to monitor their children’s activity and engagements.
TikTok also says that it uses “aggressive enforcement of our Community Guidelines” to keep kids safe.
“The complaint cherry-picks misleading quotes and outdated documents and presents them out of context, which distorts our commitment to the safety of our community,” TikTok said in a statement.
However, the Utah News Dispatch notes that TikTok’s own studies concluded that LIVE facilitated the “exploitation of live hosts’ and that TikTok profited from ‘transaction gifting’ involving nudity and sexual activity.
TikTok’s internal investigation, termed “Project Meramec,” also found that, when underage users bypassed age verification for TikTok LIVE, they would sometimes receive provocative messages from much older users.
Some adults also paid TikTok LIVE users “to strip, pose, and dance” for “diamonds,” an in-app currency that can be exchanged for real-world money.
Utah contends that, rather than taking action, TikTok elected to look the other way—because, exploitative or not, transactional sexual content “hits most of [TikTok’s] business’ metrics of success.”
TikTok, the state claims, reported “significant revenue […] in large part generated through transactions for sexual content.”
Attorneys for the state say that, aside from abuse, TikTok’s in-app currency can, and has been, used for money laundering and other illegal operations.
“As recently as 2023, TikTok compliance teams reported, ‘we have identified major money laundering criminal patterns on TikTok live platform,’” the lawsuit alleges.
Utah also claims that TikTok has broadly refused to ensure “accurate bookkeeping, real-time suspicious payment monitoring for fraud and money laundering, timely reporting processes to law enforcement of suspicious transaction reports, KYC verification for all users, or even processes to keep banned users off the platform.”
The net effect, state officials say, has been disastrous for children.
“It would be outrageous enough to endanger our kids the way TikTok has—even if it was unintended,” said outgoing Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes. “But the fact that it serves up minors on ‘TikTokLive,’ knowing the danger, understanding the damage, and still monetizing the exploitation of our kids is unconscionable.”
Sources
New court records claim TikTok knew its LIVE feature was used to groom children
TikTok knew its livestreams exploit children, Utah lawsuit claims
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