Depositions filed in federal court in March 2026 contain TikTok employees’ warnings to company leaders about child safety, according to NPR, as the platform faces U.S. lawsuits.
NPR reviewed the federal court records and said the depositions had not been submitted as evidence at trial.
Reagen Maher, who held senior safety and investigations roles at TikTok, said she pressed company leaders about sexual exploitation. Staff warnings described sexual material featuring minors that users could pay to view. Maher’s deposition also discussed an internal TikTok investigation that found the company earned revenue from gifts sent during livestreams that violated its rules.
Employees described ways underage users could evade age restrictions and hide their activity from parents. NPR’s review also included accounts raising concerns about young users encountering suicide-related videos.
Records reviewed by NPR showed that a 2018 user survey did not ask questions that could establish respondents’ ages. Staff were concerned the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) might seek the survey results, NPR reported.
TikTok spokesperson Nathaniel Brown called the claims “cherry-picked” and disputed their portrayal of the company’s child safety record and platform features. TikTok says it has invested billions of dollars in Trust & Safety.
TikTok says teen accounts come with more than 50 preset settings for safety, privacy and security. The company also offers Family Pairing, which parents and guardians can use to tailor a teen’s experience on the service.
Hundreds of federal cases against TikTok, Meta, Google and Snap have been combined for pretrial proceedings. Plaintiffs allege the services harmed minors and say the companies failed to tell young users about risks they knew of. TikTok has settled several cases before trial.
