TikTok employees spent years warning leadership about risks to children, including minors in sexual Live streams that earned the company money, according to depositions filed in March in the federal social media addiction litigation. One internal probe counted 13- to 15-year-olds in 112,000 Live videos during January 2022 and found TikTok earned “significant revenue” through gifts to streams that broke its rules. Former safety lead Reagen Maher testified she pushed the issue for months, up to then-COO V Pappas, and that teens could get into the adult version of the app by signing up through Google, Facebook or Instagram. TikTok spokesperson Nathaniel Brown said the claims were “cherry-picked at the behest of trial lawyers.”
