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Seven families are suing TikTok, saying its content has led to teen suicides

Posted on by Pranco
Seven families are suing TikTok, saying its content has led to teen suicides

Seven families in France have filed a lawsuit against TikTok over harmful content after two 15-year-olds died by suicide.

In recent years, TikTok parent company Bytedance has faced a handful of lawsuits. These complaints come from families, businesses and even government agencies.

On Monday, Nov. 4 Reuters reported this that seven families in France have filed a lawsuit against TikTok. They say the short video app exposed their teens to harmful content, causing two of them to die by suicide at the age of 15.

The lawsuit alleges that TikTok’s For You Page algorithm exposed teens in all seven families to videos promoting suicide, self-harm and eating disorders.

“The parents want TikTok’s legal liability to be recognized by the court,” said Laure Boutron-Marmion, the lawyer representing all seven families.

“This is a commercial company that offers a product to consumers who are also minors. They must therefore be held accountable for the product’s shortcomings.”

TikTok logo imageTikTok

Reuters says this is the first lawsuit of its kind filed in Europe, but it’s far from the first lawsuit TikTok has faced in recent years.

5,000 parents filed a lawsuit against the short video app in January with claims that the content on the site is “poisoning America’s youth.”

Whether or not users become addicted to the platform was questioned in an August 2024 lawsuit one man sued TikTok, Reddit, YouTube and Meta for being “too addictive.” and claimed that all sites were designed to keep users hooked.

In October, 13 states in the US filed a lawsuit against TikTok, alleging similar problems with addictive properties, citing things like beauty filters and auto-scrolling videos as parts of the app that harm children.

Dexerto spoke to a wrongful death attorney in September who told us TikTok could face “significant harm” as more and more children die following viral trends. The latest dangerous trend, the subway surfing challenge, has led to several deaths including a 17 year old.