AG Nessel joins TikTok investigation for allegedly harming children’s mental health
(The Center Square) – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel joined a nationwide investigation into TikTok for allegedly harming children’s mental health.
Attorneys General are examining whether the company violated state consumer protection laws that put the public at risk.
“Recent reports on social media’s impact on the mental and physical health of young people raise serious questions among attorneys general across the nation,” Nessel said in a statement. “Ultimately, we are concerned about protecting our youth. I am proud to join my colleagues in this investigation. Given this is an ongoing investigation, I will not be discussing any details beyond this announcement.”
The investigation will analyze what TikTok knew about alleged harms to young users.
A lengthy Wall Street Journal investigation found that Tik Tok’s algorithms barrage some users with videos about depression, eating disorders, and sexual abuse that some say perpetuate those results in real life.
Increased scrutiny into big social media companies followed two years of the COVID-19 pandemic in which nearly everyone boosted screen time, whether through virtual learning, remote work, or virtual city council meetings.
State law intends to prevent people under age 18 from entering most contracts, but not in all circumstances. Social media sites like Facebook and Instagram require users to be at least 13 years old to create an account, following to Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) that aims to give parental consent over data scraped from their children.
In May 2021, a bipartisan coalition of 44 Attorneys General urged Facebook to abandon its plans to launch a version of Instagram for children under 13. In November 2021, they investigated Meta Platforms for providing and promoting its social media platform Instagram to kids.
Leading the investigation into both Meta and Tik Tok are Attorneys General from California, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Vermont, joined by a broad group of Attorneys General nationwide.
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