Utah State Sues TikTok Alleging Addictive And Destructive Social Media Habits In Kids

Utah has become the latest U.S. state to sue TikTok, claiming that it "incites" children to develop addictive and unhealthy habits on social networks.

Governor Spencer Cox, a former educator, is leading this fight for the public health of his state. The lawsuit accuses TikTok of leading children to use social networks for hours at a time, misrepresenting the safety of the app, and itself as independent from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.

"We will not stand idly by while these companies fail to take adequate and meaningful steps to protect our children. We will prevail in holding social networking companies accountable by any means necessary," said Governor Cox, a Republican, at a press conference announcing the lawsuit, filed in state court in Salt Lake City.

Concretely, the State alleges that TikTok violated the Utah Consumer Sales Practices Act (UCSPA), focusing the platform's "deceptive" and "misleading" conduct. Its inherent nature, it says, is addictive and "purports" to "manipulate" children, resulting in an unfair and unlawful business practice.

The problem has become a public health concern which can affect children's education. Lourdes Gomez, part of the organization Familias Latinas de West Palm Beach, told Latintimes.com that she has observed that her young son has lost the ability to pay attention when people talk to him.

"He only seems to listen to what he sees on social networks that he lives glued to for hours at a time," she added. "I have noticed that since TikTok exists, he spends more time watching videos and this loss of attention to other people, including family members, has increased."

"With the members of Familias Latinas, we are thinking of raising this complaint to the Florida authorities so that they take action on the matter and eliminate these social networks that distract them so much and prevent them from dedicating time to reading and performing better in their school studies," she emphasized.

Arkansas and Indiana have filed similar lawsuits, and the U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to decide whether state attempts to regulate social media platforms such as Facebook, X and TikTok violate the Constitution. Moreover,this Thursday there will be a hearing in Montana that could decide whether the app will have to stop operating in the state altogether next year.

The lawsuit also cites research that has shown that children who spend more than three hours a day on social networking sites double their risk of mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.

"TikTok designed and employs algorithmic features that feed children endless, highly curated content that our children find difficult to disconnect from. TikTok designed these features to mimic a cruel slot machine that grabs children's attention and won't let go," Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes said at the press conference.

TikTok "misrepresents" that the app works to "support the well-being of everyone on the app" and that it is a "safe" space for children. In June 2022, TikTok implemented new measures to limit the amount of time users spend in front of their screens, reminding them to take a water break or sleep if they scroll for too long, according to the lawsuit.

The state of Utah is the latest to go on the offensive against TikTok, which several U.S. authorities have considered to be a concern to national security and its potential connection with the Chinese government.

Several lawmakers, as well as the U.S. government, have been vocal about the possibility that China could use its national security laws to access personal information that TikTok, like many other social media companies, collects from American users. In fact, in December 2022 the Biden administration banned the app from all government-issued phones.

The concern is not circumscribed to public officials. In July, Pew Research Center published a survey showing that almost 60% of Americans saw TikTok as a major or minor threat to national security. 23% were not sure and only 17% said it wasn't a threat of the kind.