15 States Push Apple and Google to Increase Age Recommendation for TikTok

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr speaks at a news conference in Marietta, Ga., on Nov. 3, 2020. Megan Varner/Getty Images

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr announced he has joined counterparts from 14 other states to send letters to Apple and Google asking them to increase the age rating for the TikTok app, currently marketed to children 12 years old and up.

The attorneys general detailed the misleading nature of the TikTok age ratings—which incorrectly portray the offensive content gathered and given to kids and teenagers who commonly use the app—in a pair of letters to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Dec. 13.

Currently, TikTok is categorized as “T” for “Teen” in the Google Play Store and as “12+,” or appropriate for users 12 years old and up in the Apple App Store. According to the attorneys general, the age restrictions should be altered to “Mature” or 17 years old and older.

Standards Benchmark

In their letter to Apple, the attorneys general cited the company’s own rating standards, saying that the benchmark for content consumed by teens was much higher than what was being produced by TikTok creators and served to children 12 years old and up.

Specifically, the request to Apple cited their assertion that Apple’s “12-plus” rating “may ... contain infrequent mild language” and “mild or infrequent mature or suggestive themes” “which may not be suitable for children under the age of 12.”

Apple’s “17-plus,” however, says that it “may ... contain frequent and intense offensive language,” “frequent and intense mature ... and suggestive themes,” “plus sexual content, nudity, alcohol, tobacco, and drugs which may not be suitable for children under the age of 17.” The letter asserts that the ”17-plus” description is a more accurate representation of the content TikTok provides.

The letter asserts that TikTok includes frequent and strong references to drinking, smoking, and using drugs, as well as explicit sexual content, profanity, and mature or suggestive themes.

The app also contains hundreds of thousands of videos on these topics searchable by hashtag, including millions of videos set to explicit songs that TikTok makes available to users in its music library, as well as instructional videos about drug use, descriptions of drinking games, cannabis edibles recipes, and vaping trick demonstrations.

Suggestions Given

Users are given suggestions for this kind of content using TikTok’s “autocomplete” search feature and are given access to it on the “For You” page, even for accounts created by users as young as 13 years old.

Carr and the other attorneys general asserted that by allowing TikTok to keep their “12-plus” rating in the Apple App Store they’re “facilitating the deception of consumers on a massive scale.”

In their letter to Google, the states’ chief law enforcement officers made a similar argument, saying they believe Google has the responsibility to change their “T” for “Teen” rating for the TikTok app since that rating is described as content that “is generally suitable for ages 13 and up.”

The attorneys general said the “T” rating for TikTok is “patently false, and it is misleading and deceptive to consumers.”

Due to the nature of the user-created videos that children and teens are able to access on the TikTok app, the state officials said that the Google Play Store should change its rating to “M” for “Mature” which warns that the content is “generally suitable for ages 17 and up,“ and may ”contain intense ... sexual content and/or strong language.”

Carr commented on the requests to the tech giants, saying: “In today’s online environment, children are at a greater risk of encountering harmful content and predatory users. We know this is a growing concern for Georgia parents, and we want to ensure that they receive honest and accurate information about an app’s age rating.

Call for National Investigation

“This is one of several actions we have taken to address social media use and its effects on young people, and we will continue working with our fellow attorneys general to keep kids safe.”

In addition to warning parents of potential dangers regarding content on the app, parental controls on both Apple and Android devices can use the rating system to block apps that children and teens might otherwise have access to.

Carr joined the attorneys general of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Virginia in signing the letters sent to Apple and Google CEOs.

In March, Carr joined a national investigation into TikTok, which called on the platform to strengthen its internal parental controls.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita also announced two separate lawsuits against TikTok, both related to the app’s claims that it contains only “infrequent/mild” instances of sexual content, profanity, or drug references.

Rokita claims that’s misleading and that the app is “rife with extreme examples of such material.”

Concern about content on the video-sharing platform comes as more than a dozen states ban the TikTok app on state devices and a congressional omnibus bill introduced on Dec. 20 includes legislation that would ban the app from all government devices due to national security concerns.