Pennsylvania is one of many states taking TikTok to court. What prompted the Keystone State to sue the short-form video social media platform?
Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday filed a lawsuit against the company in Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas in August 2026. The lawsuit alleges that TikTok failed to protect kids from inappropriate content and addiction to the app.
Here's are the details to know.
Why is Pennsylvania suing TikTok? Key points in lawsuit
Pennsylvania's lawsuit against TikTok alleges that the app fails "shield children from age-inappropriate material and over-usage of the app," contributing to harm in young people's development, according to a press release from Sunday's office.
The 65-page lawsuit is demanding that TikTok protect children from becoming addicted to the
app, as well as transparency in how the app appears in app stores, with the lawsuit alleging that the app is dishonest about how adult content appears.
"TikTok has built its empire based on a model of addictiveness at all costs, and expanded that empire using deception about what sort of content is viewable for kids," Attorney General Sunday said in a press release from his office. "This is not an indictment against modern technology, or a scolding assessment of social media as a whole — rather, this is an action to hold accountable a company that values dollars over mental wellness."
The lawsuit raises concerns about TikTok being aware of its addictive nature, noting that TikTok profits from the more time users spend scrolling and alleging that the company is intentionally avoiding measures to protect children.
How many states have sued TikTok?
In 2024 and 2025, 14 states and Washington, D.C. sued TikTok, alleging that the platform is addictive for kids, harms their mental health and illegally collects their data. In some states, TikTok requested the dismissal of these cases. Courts in multiple states, including New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington and Illinois, denied the requests.
Similar lawsuits were filed in Texas, Florida, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Nebraska, with a Texas judge ruling in August that TikTok violated the state's consumer protection law in regards to how it filtered content for children, Reuters reported.
Also in August, TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance agreed to a $400-million settlement in a 2024 lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice, according to Reuters via USA TODAY. The department alleged in their lawsuit that the company violated children's online privacy.
What is TikTok's age requirement for users?
TikTok tries to minimize "content with overtly mature themes" for its users under the age of 18, according to the app's website. The app offers preset safety, privacy and security settings for teens that are automatically turned on. With these settings, teens' accounts are set to private by default and won't suggest teens' accounts to others, limits screen time to 60 minutes a day, won't allow teens to livestream, restricts notifications at night and restricts the use of some effects. Additionally, content created by anyone under age 16 won't be shown on the For You feed, direct messaging is inaccessible to anyone under 16, other users can't duet or stitch videos created by teens under 16, comments are set to friends only and videos created by teens under 16 can't be downloaded.
Some settings, like the daily screen limit, can be changed, and settings may vary based on local laws, according to TikTok. TikTok also offers family pairing, which lets parents and guardians link their accounts with their teen's account for content management, privacy and other settings.
Greta Cross and Corey Schmidt contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pennsylvania attorney general sues TikTok. Lawsuit key points
