Internal testimony describes concerns about minors appearing in paid sexual content, weaknesses in parental controls and exposure to harmful videos. TikTok disputes the portrayal of its safety practices.
TikTok employees repeatedly warned company executives about child sexual exploitation, weaknesses in age restrictions and potentially dangerous content, according to court records reported by NPR on October 20, 2026. The documents describe internal concerns that minors were appearing in sexual livestreams involving payments, while some younger users could bypass safeguards intended to protect them.
The testimony, filed in federal court in March 2026, also raises questions about how TikTok leadership responded to employee warnings. Several workers described frustration over what they considered inadequate action, even as the platform expanded its safety features.
The records are part of litigation involving TikTok and other major social media companies. The allegations have not been established by a jury in the cases against TikTok, and the company disputes how the testimony has been presented.
Employees Raised Alarms About Sexual Exploitation
One of the central witnesses was Reagen Maher, who held senior safety and investigative positions at TikTok between 2021 and 2024. Maher testified that she spent months trying to convince senior executives to address concerns about sexual content involving minors.
According to NPR, Maher said her findings reached V Pappas, who was TikTok’s chief operating officer at the time. Internal communications presented during her deposition showed that she believed company leaders were not treating the problems with sufficient urgency.
The concerns included children participating in sexually exploitative livestreams and other users paying to view such content. TikTok’s virtual gifting system allows viewers to purchase digital items and send them to eligible livestream creators, who can convert qualifying rewards into money.
A 2022 investigation by Forbes had previously reported that minors were performing sexual acts or removing clothing during TikTok livestreams in exchange for virtual gifts. Maher testified that the company was aware of sexual exploitation involving minors before that report appeared.
The issue raised questions about whether TikTok’s payment system could financially benefit from prohibited activity. It also exposed potential weaknesses in the company’s ability to detect exploitation and intervene before children were harmed.
Internal Investigation Identified 112,000 Livestreams
An internal TikTok investigation found that children between 13 and 15 appeared in approximately 112,000 TikTok Live videos during January 2022, according to the employee testimony.
That figure does not mean all 112,000 videos contained sexual content. It represents livestreams in which children from that age group appeared, despite TikTok’s restrictions on younger users broadcasting live.
The investigation identified risks involving adults grooming children and the possible creation of child sexual abuse material. It also found that TikTok received substantial revenue from virtual gifts associated with livestreams that violated platform rules.
TikTok had introduced age-based safety restrictions in 2021, including limits on direct messaging and livestreaming for teenage accounts. The internal findings nevertheless suggested that some children continued to appear in areas of the platform intended for older users.
The records do not establish how much revenue, if any, TikTok retained from transactions directly connected to child sexual exploitation. They also do not establish that company executives knowingly participated in criminal activity.
Virtual Gifts Raise Questions About Financial Liability
TikTok’s virtual gift system became a significant issue in the employee testimony because viewers can spend real money on digital items. Those gifts may generate earnings for eligible creators, with TikTok retaining a portion of the transaction’s value.
Financial crime specialists say such arrangements can create legal concerns when payments are connected to the sexual exploitation of minors. Federal law can impose liability under specific circumstances when a company knowingly benefits from participation in child sex trafficking.
Silvija Krupena, a financial intelligence specialist at RedCompass Labs, told NPR that payments disguised as digital gifts could still represent compensation for exploitation. Whether a company faces criminal liability would depend on evidence about its knowledge, actions and involvement.
Questions also concern whether suspicious financial activity was properly identified and reported. Federal requirements can apply to regulated financial services when transactions involve suspected criminal proceeds.
NPR asked TikTok whether it submitted suspicious activity reports to the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The outlet also sought information about reports involving suspected child sexual abuse material and whether accounts connected to prohibited transactions were closed.
TikTok did not provide answers to those specific questions in the reporting. The absence of those answers does not establish that the company violated financial reporting laws.
Age Verification and Parental Controls Faced Problems
The depositions describe weaknesses in TikTok’s systems for determining users’ ages and preventing minors from accessing restricted features.
Maher testified that children could potentially gain access to an adult version of TikTok by registering through other services, including Google, Facebook or Instagram. She said senior leadership knew about the loophole.
Separate testimony concerned the company’s approach to researching the ages of its users. Internal discussions from 2018 indicated that executives worried age-related survey findings could create problems under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
That federal law, commonly known as COPPA, generally requires parental consent before covered online services collect personal information from children under 13.
According to the records, employees avoided certain survey questions because the results might reveal that elementary school children were using the platform. Internal communications also expressed concern that the Federal Trade Commission could request the findings.
TikTok’s Family Pairing feature, introduced in 2020, allows parents to manage settings such as screen time, privacy and content restrictions. However, an internal discussion from 2021 described a way for teenage users to disconnect their accounts from parental supervision.
TikTok said parents receive notifications when a teenager unlinks an account from Family Pairing. The company maintains that it has continued improving its protections for younger users.
Employees Also Warned About Suicide-Related Content
The court records extend beyond concerns about sexual exploitation and age restrictions. Former TikTok safety executive Eric Han testified about problems involving the recommendation system repeatedly exposing users to potentially harmful material.
Han served as TikTok’s head of safety from April 2019 through June 2023. He described situations in which the recommendation system repeatedly displayed similar content, including material about suicide, self-harm and body image.
Internal documents discussed during his testimony identified concerns that repeated exposure could reinforce dangerous thoughts or behavior among vulnerable users.
A 2020 company safety review acknowledged that young users faced risks requiring urgent attention. Han testified that TikTok had not warned parents about certain dangers identified internally.
These records add another dimension to the litigation because they concern what employees understood about the platform’s recommendation system and what information was communicated to families.
TikTok Rejects the Characterization of Its Safety Record
TikTok disputed the portrayal of its internal discussions after NPR published its investigation. Spokesperson Nathaniel Brown said the material had been selectively presented by lawyers and gave a misleading account of the company’s history and child safety efforts.
In a statement provided to TechCrunch, TikTok said it had invested billions of dollars in trust and safety operations. The company also pointed to more than 50 preset safety, security and privacy settings designed for teenage users.
TikTok specifically cited Family Pairing as a way for parents and guardians to customize younger users’ experiences. The company maintained that its commitment to protecting users remained unchanged.
The Justice Department has also acknowledged improvements in TikTok’s privacy practices. In announcing a separate settlement in August, federal officials said the company had strengthened age controls, parental oversight and compliance measures.
Those statements do not resolve the factual disputes raised in the employee testimony. They do, however, provide important context about the company’s response and subsequent changes to its systems.
TikTok Faces Broader Legal Pressure Over Child Safety
The latest records are connected to federal litigation involving TikTok, Meta, Google and Snap. The lawsuits allege that social media companies designed products that could harm young users while failing to disclose known risks.
TikTok has resolved several cases through settlements rather than trials. In May 2026, the company agreed to pay $8 million as part of a broader settlement involving a Kentucky school district’s claims about youth mental health and social media addiction.
In September, Alabama announced a settlement requiring TikTok to pay the state at least $100 million. The agreement also called for additional protections, including stronger age checks, parental controls and restrictions on certain features for teenagers.
A separate agreement announced by the Justice Department in August resolved federal children’s privacy allegations for $400 million. That settlement addressed COPPA compliance and did not determine criminal responsibility for the exploitation issues described in the newly reported depositions.
The March depositions have not yet been presented as evidence to a jury in the pending cases against TikTok. Their significance lies in what they reveal about internal warnings, employee concerns and decisions made as the platform grew.
The continuing litigation may bring additional testimony and documents into public view. For now, the central unresolved questions concern how quickly TikTok acted on known risks, whether its protections were adequate and what responsibility the company may bear for harm experienced by children using its services.
IMAGE: Source https://www.flickr.com/photos/solen-feyissa/50096001672/ Author Solen Feyissa CC2