Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday filed a lawsuit today against TikTok, Inc., in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas.
The lawsuit alleges the social media company misrepresents platform content to maintain an age 13+ rating in app stores and uses addictive design features that harm youth mental health.
The complaint seeks declaratory and injunctive relief, demanding TikTok accurately disclose its content ratings and implement measures to prevent child addiction. State officials claim the platform conceals the prevalence of adult-themed material—including sexual content, nudity, profanity and drug use—to secure lower age ratings while profiting from extended youth engagement.
Attorney General Dave Sunday announced the lawsuit following student discussions during teenTALK events last school year, where teenagers reported feeling trapped on the app. Sunday emphasized that the legal action targets corporate responsibility rather than modern technology as a whole.
“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.”
According to the lawsuit, features such as endless scrolling are designed to keep users on the platform longer to generate advertising revenue. The complaint alleges TikTok is aware of the app’s addictive nature and available safety mechanisms but ignores them.
Data from the Pew Research Center shows TikTok has nearly 100 million daily users in the United States. More than two-thirds of teens ages 13 to 17 use the app and more than one in five teens report using it almost constantly.
The filing follows prior efforts by Sunday to address technology-related harms affecting youth. Late last year, he led a series of demand letters sent to artificial intelligence companies regarding harmful chatbots and he remains engaged in litigation against Meta.
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