Attorney General Chris Carr signed on to a letter asking Google and Apple to change TikTok age ratings to reflect the content on the platform. The TikTok app is rated 12+ in Apple’s app store and “T” for teen in Google’s app store.
“In reality, the TikTok app contains frequent and intense alcohol, tobacco, and drug use or references, sexual content, profanity, and mature/suggestive themes. TikTok users can search for hundreds of thousands of hashtags related to these topics, which each return thousands of videos in these categories—instructional videos about drug use, descriptions of drinking games, recipes for cannabis edibles, demonstrations of vaping tricks, pole dancing routines, descriptions of sexual kinks and rape fantasies, and millions of videos set to songs with explicit lyrics, which TikTok makes available to users in its music library,” states the letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook from Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, which was also signed by Carr and other attorneys general.
The letter warns that some states are also considering legal action.
The letter comes the day after Georgia Governor Brian Kemp banned TikTok on state devices, citing Chinese government control of the app. Nationally, there’s also a push to ban TikTok on U.S. government devices, and some agencies have already implemented bans.
“In today’s online environment, children are at a greater risk of encountering harmful content and predatory users,” Carr said in a press release. “We know this is a growing concern for Georgia parents, and we want to ensure that they receive honest and accurate information about an app’s age rating. This is one of several actions we have taken to address social media use and its effects on young people, and we will continue working with our fellow attorneys general to keep kids safe.”
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Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Chris Carr” by Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr. Background Photo “TikTok” by Solen Feyissa. CC BY-SA 2.0.
