Texas judge rules TikTok misled users about child safety
Texas judge rules TikTok misled users on child safety feature
A Texas judge found TikTok violated state consumer protection law by misleading users about how it filtered content for minors. Texas argued TikTok said it would remove content breaking its Community Guidelines, but internally labeled some material "hard to find" rather than "do not allow," leaving it on the platform. Judge Cory Liu also found the "Restricted Mode" feature did not work as advertised. The case now heads to trial, where penalties will be decided.
Liu also said Texas had established that TikTok's "Restricted Mode" did not work as advertised and exposed minors to content the company said would be filtered out.
- jjice
It blows my mind that parents let their children use these platforms with these safety features.
I just found out yesterday that my cousin lets their 5ish year old have a TikTok account, but they have to allow or deny anyone who follows. How absurd is that. It doesn't block anything about what they view (I assume they relied on this safety feature), and there's no way that vetting who can follow (family and friends) is safe enough. The alternative is my younger cousin not having access to TikTok at five years old. Seems like a completely fine alternative.
I imagine the average person just doesn't think about the potential implications of giving your child a TikTok account at that age.
- tolugenius
> Liu also said Texas had established that TikTok's "Restricted Mode" did not work as advertised and exposed minors to content the company said would be filtered out.
I don't use tiktok, can someone explain what the restrict mode was advertised as vs does? If it's like any social media limiter it's perhaps a softer thing (time limit) than a hard thing (ie, designed to put the onus on the user).
- pmdr
TikTok isn't even safe for adults, let alone children.
- philipallstar
Texas judge rules heroin marketed as child safe so parents could get back to doing their own heroin was not child safe after all.
- fuzzfactor
Seems like that would be contrary to the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.