VA Attorney General Urges TikTok, Snapchat To Allow Greater Parental Control

VIRGINIA — Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares joined a group of state attorneys general urging social media giants TikTok and Snapchat to create ways for parents to more easily monitor their children’s use of the apps.

The state attorneys general announced they are targeting TikTok and Snapchat out of fear that children need protection from content on the apps. Research demonstrates the negative impact that social media can have on the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of children and teenagers, Miyares said in a statement Wednesday.

“I am proud to join a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general in urging TikTok and Snapchat to put children’s safety first. Unfortunately, predators and bullies can use social media to reach impressionable children without their parents having any idea,” Miyares said.

“Parental control apps would allow parents to ensure their children are staying safe in an increasingly dangerous digital world,” he said.

Earlier this month, Miyares announced he had joined a nationwide investigation into TikTok, claiming the popular app is bringing physical and mental health harm to users, especially young people.

On Wednesday, Miyares cited a study that analyzed more than 3.4 billion messages on various social media platforms from 2021 and found that 43.09 percent of young adolescents and 74.61 percent of teenagers were involved in a self-harm/suicidal situation and 72.09 percent of young adolescents and 85.00 percent of teens experienced bullying as a bully, victim, or witness.

READ ALSO: TikTok Investigation: VA Attorney General Miyares Joins Probe

Social media apps Discord and Kik were ranked in the top 5 of all seven categories — severe sexual content, severe suicidal ideation, depression, body image concerns, severe bullying, hate speech and severe violence — for most flagged content in 2021, according to the study conducted by Bark, a social media content monitoring company.

Discord was ranked as the most flagged social media app in four categories: severe suicidal ideation, body image concerns, severe bullying and severe violence. Kik was ranked as the most flagged social media app in two categories: several sexual content and hate speech.

TikTok was ranked in the top 5 of four of the seven categories, and was not ranked as the most flagged social media app in any of the categories, according to the study. Snapchat was ranked in the top 5 of six of the seven categories, but was not ranked as the most flagged app in any of the seven categories.

Despite their apps not ranking as high as other apps in most flagged negative content, TikTok and Snapchat were targeted by the attorneys general based on concerns that the two companies "are not taking appropriate steps to allow parents to protect their kids on your platforms."

The March 28 letter to top executives at TikTok and Snapchat was sent on the letterhead of the National Association of Attorneys General and was signed by 44 attorneys general, led by Attorneys General Lynn Fitch (R) of Mississippi and Josh Stein (D) of North Carolina.

"While your platforms incorporate some content moderation policies, there are areas, such as direct messaging, that are not monitored in the same way or to the same degree as other areas on your platforms," the state attorneys general said in the letter. "In addition, some of your internal parental control settings can be changed or bypassed and still allow inappropriate content."

Parental control is particularly essential on your sites due to the “Discover” and “For You” sections on your platforms, "which propagate disturbing sexual content and explicit drug use to our youth," the state attorneys general said, citing a September 2021 Wall Street Journal article.

"We urge you to enhance your content moderation to screen out such content on your platform and to empower greater parental control. Parental control apps can give parents additional tools to try to help filter out much of this type of content," they said.

The state attorneys general said in the letter that they "strongly" encourage TikTok and Snapchat to "immediately pursue collaboration with parental control apps and to implement stronger parental controls and content moderation within your platform."