TikTok staff raised child safety concerns, but executives reportedly failed to act

Court documents show TikTok employees were frustrated with how executives responded to their concerns about risks to children. TikTok was repeatedly warned by employees about the risks the social media platform posed to children, according to court records obtained by NPR. The documents say employees were frustrated with how executives responded to their concerns about risks to children, including sexual exploitation and exposure to suicide-related content. Depositions of employees filed in March 2026 are shedding new light on TikTok’s child safety practices. According to NPR, TikTok employees warned that minors were appearing in sexual content that was available for purchase on TikTok, raising concerns that the company could profit from potentially illegal activity.

They also flagged that minors were exploiting loopholes to access age-restricted content and hide their activity from parents. Additionally, the court documents show that TikTok didn’t conduct surveys to determine the age of its users out of concern that it would have to share the results with the Federal Trade Commission. “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,” a TikTok spokesperson said in an emailed statement to TechCrunch. “It’s unfortunate that NPR has chosen to ignore the numerous documents