Alexandra S. Levine is a journalist covering technology's impact on society, mainly writing investigations and features about social media, children's safety online and AI. She joined Forbes in 2022.
More than two years after bipartisan AGs launched investigations into TikTok’s alleged harms to kids, they’ve filed a barrage of lawsuits against the social media giant. With the possibility of a TikTok ban early next year, the stakes couldn’t be higher.With federal scrutiny of TikTok at an all-time high, states and D.C. are waging their own wars against the app.
“TikTok’s platform, designed to be dangerously addictive, inflicts immense damage on an entire generation of young people,” Schwalb said in a statement. “In addition to prioritizing its profits over the health of children, TikTok’s unregulated and illegal virtual economy allows the darkest, most depraved corners of society to prey upon vulnerable victims.
TikTokers regularly earn and spend money through TikTok Live: Those watching the broadcasts can use real money to purchase TikTok coins, which can then be used to buy and send digital TikTok gifts directly to those hosting livestreams, who can redeem them for actual cash. In another, a teen slowly cut off her shirt with a pair of scissors as an audience of 3,000 egged her on. “IF U DO THE BLACK PART IM GONNA SEND TIKTOK LIVE 35.000 TIKTOK COINS ,” one commenter wrote, urging her to snip her bra. On other TikTok streams, often filmed from girls’ bedrooms and bathrooms, they were offered financial rewards if they’d kiss each other or spread their legs for the camera.
Bytedance China Ban Attorneys General Brian Schwalb Livestreams Child Safety Creators Money
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