In a lawsuit filed this week in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, he alleges the social media giant deceptively categorizes itself as safe for teenagers when it offers a plethora of adult content, including topics like profanity, drugs, sexual situations, tobacco use and alcohol. 

Sunday also alleges TikTok is designed to be addictive so users continue to scroll and watch its short videos one after another and thereby add to its ad revenue.

TikTok’s content “is something 13, 14, and 15-year-olds should not be exposed to at such a young age,” said Sunday. To be listed as safe for the 13-plus age range, TikTok “claims mature audience content is infrequent on their apps,” said Sunday. 

“Our investigation reveals that this could not be further from the truth,” said Sunday. TikTok “puts content in the palm of our kids’ hands whenever they want, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.”

The lawsuit asks for declaratory and injunctive relief and asks the court to require TikTok to be honest about its content when listing itself in an app store, and demands, under the state’s consumer protection laws, that it take steps to protect users from becoming addicted. 

“TikTok intentionally designed its platform to be addictive to young people,” said Sunday. And, it works against parents, educators and “other positive influencers in our children’s lives.” 

Sunday said that when he spoke to teenagers during teen TALK events during the last school year, some students told him that they were trapped on TikTok, experiencing “bed rot” or being unable to stop scrolling. 

“TikTok has built its empire based on a model of addictiveness at all costs, and expanded that empire using deception about what sort of content is viewable for kids,” Sunday said. “This is not an indictment against modern technology, or a scolding assessment of social media as a whole — rather, this is an action to hold accountable a company that values dollars over mental wellness.” 

The lawsuit alleges that it is by design. TikTok profits increase as users spend more and more time looking at it. The complaint alleges that TikTok is aware of the addictiveness and that barriers could be implemented to protect kids. However, TikTok allegedly ignores this to continue its profit-making model.

“My kids have TikTok,” said Bucks County mother Jamie Walker. “I don’t really worry about it. There isn’t much you can do. If they don’t have it, their friends do.”

But Jeff Jones, a Delaware County dad, is more concerned.

“I think anything that will assist parents in protecting kids from age-inappropriate material is a good thing,” Jones said. “These social media platforms are modeled to be addictive, and the technology is so easily accessible to teens that any help in minimizing unwelcome content will be a benefit.”

TikTok is one of the most downloaded apps every year over recent years, with nearly 100 million daily users in the United States, according to Pew Research Center. More than two-thirds of teens (ages 13-17) use the app, and more than one in five teens report being on it “almost constantly,” according to Pew.

While data for pre-teens is harder to find, Sunday said that preteens are also on TikTok. 

“Think about how young some kids are when they have their first smartphone, 8 or 9,” said Sunday. “That’s when they can start being exposed to things well beyond their years.”

While TikTok reports age restrictions, those are “essentially worthless,” said Sunday. Some 70 percent of kids under 16 self-report that they say they are older when asked their age online.

TikTok does not warn parents that its “restricted mode” does not meaningfully restrict mature content, Sunday alleged.

Not surprisingly, the social media company views the situation differently.

A spokesperson for TikTok sent this response: “This lawsuit relies on misleading and inaccurate claims and deliberately ignores the concrete safety measures TikTok has voluntarily implemented to support the well-being of our community. Teen accounts have 50 preset safety, privacy, and security settings built-in, and TikTok’s Family Pairing tools give parents direct control over screen time and content filters. We will vigorously defend against these claims.”