Details of the lawsuit show that Apple urged TikTok to increase its age guidelines

Recently, TikTok has come under scrutiny for its impact on the mental health of young people. A popular video sharing platform is facing lawsuits from 14 different states in connection with these accusations, and it seems that not only legislators think so.

As reported, Apple has also secretly pressured TikTok raise the age guidelines from 12 to over 17. Apple’s comments were accidentally made public in South Carolina’s complaint against TikTok (they were supposed to be redacted, but for some reason were made public instead).

Back in 2022, Apple’s team reportedly checked TikTok’s age rating and found that it often had “intense adult content or obscene content.” Apple has reportedly asked TikTok to make the necessary changes to comply with the App Store Review’s recommendations. However, we don’t know exactly what Apple was asking, as only a portion of the redacted content was shown.

TikTok employees were also reportedly concerned about what the company had done to limit content containing profanity and eating disorders. First, profanity was found in one in every 50 pop-up ads shown to minors in the US and UK during the month!

As you might expect, TikTok wasn’t happy with this leak – and now it’s been redacted again. TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek said the release of this redacted information was irresponsible and claimed that many of the issues had already been resolved.

However, the South Carolina lawsuit was not the only one that erroneously found redacted material. Kentucky also accidentally released documents that indicated that TikTok reportedly found that compulsive use was correlated with negative mental health outcomes, such as decreased analytical skills and memory formation, as well as increased anxiety.

In addition to all this, TikTok also knew that its time limit tool was not as effective for minors as it should have been.

It’s no secret that apps like TikTok and other social media platforms have a vested interest in keeping people there because it helps them generate ad revenue. In fact, I believe that TikTok is not solely to blame here, and the focus here is precisely because it is very popular among teenagers.

But I feel that the entire industry should pay more attention to the health and well-being of users. For me, the solution is paid subscriptions everywhere – no ads and you choose when to be there, and the service also gets paid for what it offers. In my opinion, this is the fairest and healthiest approach to social media.