Attorney General James Uthmeier is seeking damages from TikTok, claiming the tech giant is not complying with Florida's 2024 social media ban for minors.
Uthmeier filed a civil lawsuit against TikTok Monday, asking a state trial court to declare the company a public nuisance for not complying with state law requiring 14- and 15-year-olds to have a parent's consent to use social media apps.
"Florida children, teens, and their parents are facing a crisis: the widespread, compulsive use of social media platforms specifically designed to be addictive," Uthmeier wrote in the filing in the St. Lucie County court.
The 2024 law, which was not enforced until legal exchanges concluded in November 2025, also requires social media companies to prohibit children 13 and younger from using any app containing addictive features such as endless scrolling, push notifications, auto-play videos, and live-streaming.
This is the first lawsuit the state has pursued against a company for not following the law since it started being enforced.
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The initial 2024 legal challenges to the law were filed by NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association. Those groups are made up of tech giants such as Meta, eBay, Google, Pinterest, Reddit, Discord, and Amazon.
TikTok is not a member of those associations.
Uthmeier said during a news conference in Fort Lauderdale that TikTok is looking at "potentially billions in damages."
"TikTok represents to Florida parents and Florida children that mature content on its platform, including drugs, nudity, alcohol, and profanity, is 'infrequent,'" the complaint states.
"Those representations are lies. Music, videos, and other content available on the TikTok app contain sexual content, drugs, alcohol, intense profanity, self-harm messages, and other X-rated content, all of which are frequently and easily accessible at the fingertips and swipes of Florida tweens and teens."
Uthmeier said in November at the end of the legal challenge that he would "aggressively enforce" the social media ban, a top priority of then-House Speaker Paul Renner.
Uthmeier said in the suit that TikTok does not require parental consent, as the law demands, for users 14 and 15 years old.
The state claims TikTok's description of itself in the app store as having "infrequent/mild" sexual content and nudity constitutes an unfair business practice.
"Users who type only a few letters into the TikTok app's search bar will be presented with search suggestions that lead to frequent and intense profanity; crude humor; alcohol, tobacco, and drug use and references; sexual content or nudity; and mature or suggestive themes," the lawsuit claims.
During a news conference announcing the lawsuit Monday, Uthmeier said there could be further legislative action in addressing social media restriction for young Floridians.
"I know we've done a lot of good work to protect children from those harms," Uthmeier said, referring to "blatant pornography."
"To the extent these platforms are not falling under that law, we definitely are going to go back this year and strengthen that legislation if we need to protect in some of these other areas," Uthmeier said.
The attorney general said tech companies have gotten a "hall pass" for the past decade or more.
"TikTok knew and intended to evade the parental controls on Apple devices when it rated its app '12+' and now '13+,'" the state claims.
Uthmeier is asking the court to declare TikTok a public nuisance, stop it from violating the law, and impose a $50,000 fine for each violation.
"The harms visited on young people by compulsive use of social media are a direct result of the intentional design choices of the owners of certain social media platforms, including TikTok," he said.
TikTok's parent company ByteDance has not returned a request for comment from the Phoenix.
"If there's evidence that senior officials designed this application knowing that these types of criminal activities would take place and nevertheless let it happen, there could be liability there, but today's complaint is civil," Uthmeier said during the news conference Monday, comparing the situation to the story of Dr. Frankenstein's refusal to take accountability for the monster he created.
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