Depositions show TikTok staff repeatedly warned of child-safety risks, NPR reports

TikTok employees repeatedly warned the company about risks the app posed to children, according to court records obtained by NPR. The concerns included sexual exploitation of minors and exposure to suicide-related content.

The Verge summarized NPR's reporting. Both reports rely on the same records, so the core claims below largely come from a single origin. The reports do not make clear whether The Verge's additional details came from NPR. No second, independent source confirms them.

According to NPR, as summarized by The Verge, the records are depositions of TikTok staff. They were filed in federal court in March 2026 and had not been reported before. The records show employees were frustrated with how leadership responded, according to both outlets.

Staff alerted management that minors were engaging with or appearing in sexual content, the outlets report. Employees also identified loopholes that let users under 18 bypass age restrictions. According to NPR, these loopholes also let minors block parental oversight. NPR also reports that TikTok avoided conducting age surveys because it feared it would have to share the results with the US Federal Trade Commission.

According to The Verge, the depositions are connected to multi-district litigation begun in 2022. It combines hundreds of lawsuits against TikTok, Meta, Snap and Google.

The Verge reports that Reagen Maher held senior safety and investigations roles at TikTok from 2021 to 2024. Her deposition describes flagging "transactional sexual content" to then-CEO V Pappas. This involved minors stripping on TikTok's Live feature in exchange for "gifts" that can be converted into real currency. Forbes reported on the issue in 2022.

The Verge also reports that Eric Han, TikTok's former head of safety, was concerned in 2020 about harmful algorithm "rabbit holes". In an internal report, he described a "real contagion effect" regarding "suicidal ideation and behavior".

What is disputed

The outlets characterize the financial aspect differently. NPR describes the content as material "which the company profited from". The Verge describes it as content "the company could financially benefit from".

What each side says

In an internal chat excerpt quoted by The Verge, Maher wrote: "I have been fighting about fixing this for months with people who didn’t think the harms are severe enough." She added: "Put simply, senior leaders know about this issue. There are some ongoing projects to fix parts of it, and frankly, I’m hoping [that] this article puts a fire behind other potential solutions." According to The Verge, she said the company knew of the concerns before the Forbes article.

The Verge quoted Han as saying "minor safety is an urgent issue that we must address effectively". He said TikTok failed to warn parents about potential dangers.

Plaintiffs allege the four companies knew their platforms harm children and failed to disclose those risks, according to The Verge.

The reports reviewed by Vocemundi do not include any response from TikTok, V Pappas, Meta, Snap or Google. They do not identify the specific court or case, and they do not describe what changes TikTok made after the concerns were raised.

Analysis

The depositions could matter in the multi-district litigation, where plaintiffs argue the companies knew of harms and did not disclose them. Their weight will depend on how a court assesses them alongside the defendants' responses, which the reports do not include. The age-survey claim could draw regulatory interest, but the reports do not say whether the Federal Trade Commission is aware of it. The core claims about staff warnings trace largely to NPR's reporting; it is unclear whether The Verge's litigation context and quotes also originate from NPR. Fuller public access to the records, or comment from TikTok, could strengthen, qualify or contradict the account. Different outcomes remain possible.

Produced by the Vocemundi newsroom with AI assistance.