Seven families in France have filed a lawsuit against TikTok, accusing the platform of exposing their adolescent children to harmful content that allegedly contributed to two of the children taking their own lives at the age of 15, their lawyer reported on Monday.
The lawsuit claims that TikTok’s algorithm exposed the teenagers to videos promoting suicide, self-harm, and eating disorders, according to lawyer Laure Boutron-Marmion, who spoke with broadcaster franceinfo.
The families are taking collective legal action in the Créteil judicial court. Boutron-Marmion stated that this is the first such case of its kind in Europe.
“The parents want TikTok’s legal responsibility to be acknowledged in court,” she said, adding, “This is a commercial entity offering a product to consumers, who are minors. Therefore, they must be held accountable for the product’s failures.”
Like other social media platforms, TikTok has faced criticism over how it handles content on its app.
Similar to Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram), TikTok is involved in multiple lawsuits in the United States, where companies are accused of drawing in and addicting millions of children to their platforms, negatively impacting their mental health.
TikTok has not yet responded to the specific allegations. However, the company has previously stated that it takes children’s mental health seriously. In a statement earlier this year, CEO Shou Zi Chew told US lawmakers that the company had invested in measures to protect young users of the app.