Florida sues TikTok over alleged child safety violations
Florida says TikTok let children under 14 open accounts and told parents sex, self-harm and drug content was only mild.
Florida’s latest fight with TikTok centers on whether the platform allowed children it was supposed to bar and then softened what parents were told about the risks. Attorney General James Uthmeier sued TikTok and several ByteDance entities, accusing the company of violating the state’s child-protection law and of using deceptive trade practices to keep minors engaged.
The complaint, filed June 15 in the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit in St. Lucie County, says TikTok let children under 14 create accounts and allowed some 15- and 16-year-olds to sign up without parental consent. Florida’s law, House Bill 3, took effect on January 1, 2025, bars children under 14 from creating social media accounts and requires parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds. The lawsuit names TikTok Inc., TikTok Ltd., TikTok Pte. Ltd., TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, ByteDance Ltd. and ByteDance, Inc.
Florida also says TikTok misled parents by classifying mature themes such as sex, drug content, profanity, self-harm, suicide and eating disorders as merely mild or infrequent even though the state says those themes appear frequently on the platform. The attorney general’s office is asking for injunctive and declaratory relief and civil penalties under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, a claim that could force the state to prove not only that the labels were inaccurate, but that they were deceptive enough to shape a parent’s decision about whether a child should be on the app. That will likely turn on internal moderation records, account-age checks and the language TikTok used in its parental controls and content ratings.
The case is the latest test of House Bill 3, which was enacted by bipartisan supermajorities in the Florida Legislature in 2024 and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis on March 25, 2024. A federal judge blocked enforcement in June 2025, but the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cleared Florida to begin enforcing the law in November 2025 while the broader legal fight continued. Uthmeier said the case could expose TikTok to “potentially billions in damages” and signaled that more enforcement actions may follow as he vowed to “go after anybody that's going to hurt our kids.”
TikTok said it stands by its teen safety and privacy features and has been engaging with the attorney general in good faith. The company also said it had notified users under 14 in Florida that their accounts would be suspended while it continued updating its platform to comply with state law. Representative Chip LaMarca praised the lawsuit, casting it as part of Florida’s effort to stand with families against addictive social media apps.
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