Court documents show TikTok employees were frustrated with how executives responded to their concerns about risks to children. The documents say employees were frustrated with how executives responded to their concerns about risks to children, including sexual exploitation and exposure to suicide-related content.
In Brief Posted: 8:03 AM PDT · October 20, 2026 Image Credits: Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto / Getty Images Aisha Malik TikTok staff raised child safety concerns, but executives reportedly failed to act TikTok was repeatedly warned by employees about the risks the social media platform posed to children, according to court records obtained NPR . The documents say employees were frustrated with how executives responded to their concerns about risks to children, including sexual exploitation and exposure to suicide-related content. Depositions of employees filed in March 2026 are shedding new light on TikTok’s child safety practices. According to NPR, TikTok employees warned that minors were appearing in sexual content that was available for purchase on TikTok, raising concerns that the company could profit from potentially illegal activity. They also flagged that minors were exploiting loopholes to access age-restricted content and hide their activity from parents. Additionally, the court documents show that TikTok didn’t conduct surveys to determine the age of its users out of concern that it would have to share the results with the Federal Trade Commission. TikTok, in addition to Meta, Google and Snap, faces hundreds of lawsuits consolidated in federal court. The lawsuits allege that these companies’ platforms harm minors, and that they failed to disclose known risks to young users. TikTok has reached settlements in several of these cases before they went to trial, including one in Los Angeles where a jury found that Meta and YouTube had designed their platforms to be addictive to young users. TikTok did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment. Topics Apps , online child safety , Social , Social media addiction , TikTok November 4 Boston Buy One Pass, Get a Second Free Cover more ground at TechCrunch’s ultimate founder bootcamp of the year by bringing your co-founder or partner for free Book before the BOGO deal expires Register Now Newsletters See More Subscribe for the industry’s biggest tech news TechCrunch Daily News Every weekday and Sunday, you can get the best of TechCrunch’s coverage. TechCrunch Mobility TechCrunch Mobility is your destination for transportation news and insight. Startups Weekly Startups are the core of TechCrunch, so get our best coverage delivered weekly. StrictlyVC Provides movers and shakers with the info they need to start their day. No newsletters selected. Subscribe By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . Related AI Figma co-founder Dylan Field thinks MCP is not a perfect protocol Ivan Mehta 50 minutes ago Transportation SpaceX alum’s aviation startup, Reliable Robotics, lands $115M, topping $1B valuation Kirsten Korosec 2 hours ago Government & Policy US orders federal agencies to remove China’s DeepSeek AI from their systems Kate Park 2 hours ago Latest in Social In Brief TikTok staff raised child safety concerns, but executives reportedly failed to act Aisha Malik 13 seconds ago Apps Tolan snags $30M for its AI companion that helps users navigate life Sarah Perez 20 hours ago Social Musk pledges to give ‘every kid in America’ one of his SpaceX shares Sean O’Kane 1 day ago