TikTok Executives Ignored Internal Warnings on Child Safety, Court Records Show
Court records reveal TikTok staff warned executives about minors exchanging sexualized livestreams for virtual gifts before a 2022 Forbes report. Former safety head Eric Han also flagged algorithmic “rabbit holes” linked to suicidal ideation in 2020.
TikTok’s own employees repeatedly raised alarms about child safety risks on the platform, but company executives failed to take adequate action, according to court records obtained by NPR and published in October 2026.
The records include previously unreported staff depositions filed in federal court in March, connected to a multi-district litigation initiated in 2022. That case consolidates hundreds of lawsuits alleging that TikTok, Meta, Snap, and Google knew their platforms were harmful to children and failed to disclose those risks.
One deposition from Reagen Maher, who held senior safety and investigations roles at TikTok between 2021 and 2024, described flagging “transactional sexual content” directly to then-CEO V Pappas. The concern centered on minors stripping on TikTok’s Live feature in exchange for virtual “gifts” that can be converted into real currency. Maher said the company was aware of the sexual exploitation issue before Forbes reported on it in 2022. “I have been fighting about fixing this for months with people who didn’t think the harms are severe enough,” Maher wrote in an internal chat, adding that she hoped press coverage would accelerate solutions.
A separate deposition from former TikTok head of safety Eric Han described concerns he raised in 2020 about the platform’s algorithm pushing users into harmful “rabbit holes.” Han flagged a “real contagion effect” related to “suicidal ideation and behavior” in an internal report, and said TikTok failed to warn parents about the potential dangers of children using the platform despite his warnings.
The depositions suggest a pattern in which frontline safety staff identified serious risks to minors — including exposure to age-restricted content and sexual exploitation — while leadership did not respond with sufficient urgency. The revelations may add weight to the ongoing multi-district litigation targeting TikTok and other major social media platforms over child safety practices.