this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2023
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Utah became the latest state Tuesday to file a lawsuit against TikTok, alleging the company is “baiting” children into addictive and unhealthy social media habits.

TikTok lures children into hours of social media use, misrepresents the app’s safety and deceptively portrays itself as independent of its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, Utah claims in the lawsuit.

“We will not stand by while these companies fail to take adequate, meaningful action to protect our children. We will prevail in holding social media companies accountable by any means necessary,” Republican Gov. Spencer Cox said at a news conference announcing the lawsuit, which was filed in state court in Salt Lake City.

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[–] seaQueue@lemmy.world 102 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Great! Now sue Facebook and Instagram.

[–] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago

I dunno, if they get a ruling here with a big enough splash this might actually spread to them too.

It'll all depend on if they can establish a solid enough case centered around the addictive nature of the content presentation algorithm, and getting it banned in favor of something like chronological content ordering.

[–] potterpockets@sh.itjust.works 58 points 1 year ago

Good thing Mormons have never been known to bait children into addictive and unhealthy habits.

[–] badbytes@lemmy.world 39 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah because UTAH is so good to their youth.

[–] expr@programming.dev 10 points 1 year ago

No, but they're also not wrong here.

[–] Number1SummerJam@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

I've seen it with my own eyes. My SO's younger sisters are 13 and spend all day glued to tiktok, Youtube shorts etc. I've seen the weird challenges encouraging dangerous behavior that the media hypes up show up in their feed (of mostly drama videos doxing strangers on the internet), as well as random videos of dead cats, gore, fentanyl references, and they've complained about videos of topless underage girls in 3rd world countries. Even though I'm politically across the aisle from these people, I support this lawsuit.

[–] Birdie@thelemmy.club 30 points 1 year ago (5 children)

But whose responsibility is it to monitor their internet access? Mom and Dad need to step up and actually parent their children!

[–] pete_the_cat@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

As a young geek in the 90s, I know that kids can outsmart their parents easily. Most parents aren't tech savvy but their kids are. A parent would literally have to sit there next to them and monitor every webpage and conversation they have, which isn't realistic most of the time.

We all know that social media sites like Facebook and Instagram have a negative impact on those that aren't adults (it still sucks for adults too, but in a different way), and sites like TikTok and other video shorts essentially promote short attention spans and maximize the "reward" (dopamine) that users get.

Social media sites are virtual Skinner Boxes.

[–] ALostInquirer@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

But whose responsibility is it to monitor their internet access? Mom and Dad need to step up and actually parent their children!

Yeah...Isn't this likely unconstitutional given the first amendment? This strikes me as somewhat similar to attempts to regulate video games "for making children violent" or the like. At best this may result in TikTok releasing a children's variation of the app with greater restrictions in terms of use and content, supposing something like that doesn't already exist.

Similar to how YouTube has a variation of their app for children, if I remember right.

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[–] mrbubblesort@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Seriously, are they the party of "personal responsibility"?

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[–] Number1SummerJam@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

How do you know they aren't in a bad home situation? What then?

[–] pete_the_cat@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, it's definitely addictive. My neighbor has 3 "tweenage" (10-12) daughters and they're addicted to it, but then again Facebook is and was just as bad back in the mid 2000s. In college my girlfriend couldn't go more than about 10 minutes (literally) without checking Facebook back in like 2009.

If you're around my age (37) and you had access to the internet in the 90s, you definitely saw way more fucked up stuff as a kid (The Stile Project, Rotten.com, etc...). We weren't emotionally and mentally manipulated like the current younger generation is though, which is definitely fucked up. So, like you, I reluctantly support this as well.

[–] Zahille7@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I mean I know plenty of adults that are a tuslly addicted to tiktok as well.

Granted they aren't actually doing anything wrong

[–] TenderfootGungi@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

While I am sure this is true, wouldn’t conservatives want this to fall on parents instead of regulations?

[–] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 year ago

You seem confused, let me explain:

The conservative philosophy isn't "you can't tell people what to do," it's "You can't tell me what to do. I can tell you what to do."

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[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

My teenaged niece and nephew are hopelessly addicted to TikTok. My brother and sister-in-law (who are in their 40s/50s) decided to deal with the problem by also becoming hopelessly addicted to TikTok.

[–] o0joshua0o@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

I agree. If all of TikTok was shot into the sun tomorrow, the world would be a better place.

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[–] Piecemakers3Dprints@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Utah. Sacred home of the Mormon cult. Is suing, unironically I might add, for the above reasons...

[–] Ryan213@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Piecemakers3Dprints@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Somebody needs to bleed that cult ASAP. 🤷🏼‍♂️

[–] holycrap@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They have hundreds of billions in assets, sadly. They're not going anywhere.

[–] Piecemakers3Dprints@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Well, at least until someone commandeers their colony ship, right? 🤞🏼

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[–] moneyinphx@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can TikTok sue the Mormon church for “baiting” children into addictive and unhealthy habits?

[–] Death_Equity@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Only the Scientologists could win in court against the Mormons.

[–] dezmd@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not in Utah they couldn't.

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[–] Jaysyn@kbin.social 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

A bunch of fastfood execs just started sweating profusely.

[–] pete_the_cat@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I thought that was their default state.

[–] ThePantser@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

That's just the meat sweats.

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[–] stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I can’t see this surviving a first amendment challenge, but we’ll see.

[–] Synnr@sopuli.xyz 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It won't, but that's not the point. Gov. Spencer Cox is campaigning. Ever notice how politicians get real busy and start hitting hard with stuff like this when election season is near?

[–] stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 year ago

Think of the children. Vote for me or the gay Chinese Democrats will take your kids.

[–] TigrisMorte@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Mostly just a specific of ideology politicians, in my experience.

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[–] toiletobserver@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think it could be regulated to a positive effect. We regulate all sorts of things that are addictive, see gambling and substances. We also regulate speech on broadcast TV and radio. And, children should be given elevated protections to data harvesting which is what these companies are really doing. Do i expect the government to fuck this up? Absolutely, but don't let people hide behind first amendment bullshit to avoid the conversation.

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[–] JokeDeity@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Downvote me all you want, but this is the way. That shit needs banned or some extreme restrictions need to be implemented. IMO it's literally dumbing down our entire country.

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[–] TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why can't Republicans control their kids? Why are they always asking the state to do it for them?

[–] donescobar@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

The government they want less of at that.

[–] Greyghoster@aussie.zone 6 points 1 year ago

Chinese parent company stands out here. Not sure what that has to do with parental controls and excessive time spent unless they are alleging that the Chinese government is trying to waste Utah kids time.

[–] Starb3an@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago

Something something glass houses, something something throwing rocks

[–] Killercat103@infosec.pub 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I hope they win. I mean TikTok is not the only one. Not even close. But I hate platforms like these and would like to see some backlash.

[–] Lightor@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

So we should have the government shut down things we don't like? Can no one see how this is a bit of a slippery slope, establishing this pattern. What if they decide lemmy needs to go and use the same reasoning.

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[–] erranto@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Local opium is better than Chinese opium.

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