TikTok staff raised child safety alarms. Court records show executives failed to act
Heard on All Things Considered TikTok employees repeatedly raised concerns internally about the risks the short-form video app posed to children, including sexual exploitation and exposure to suicide content.
听到所有考虑的事情 TikTok 员工在内部多次表达了对该短视频应用程序给儿童带来的风险的担忧，包括性剥削和接触自杀内容。
Previously unreported court records show that the employees were frustrated with how the company's leadership responded to their concerns.
此前未报道的法庭记录显示，员工们对公司领导层回应他们担忧的方式感到沮丧。
Depositions of staffers filed in federal court in March 2026 offer new insights into how TikTok has approached child safety since the platform exploded in popularity among young users in 2018.
2026 年 3 月向联邦法院提交的员工证词为 TikTok 自 2018 年在年轻用户中大受欢迎以来如何处理儿童安全问题提供了新的见解。
Employees raised the alarm about minors appearing in sexual content on the app, which viewers could pay to access and the company would profit from — a potential financial crime.
员工们对应用程序上出现的色情内容中的未成年人提出了警告，观众可以付费观看这些内容，而公司将从中获利——这是一种潜在的金融犯罪。
They also flagged that users under 18 were using loopholes to bypass age-restricted content and to block parents and guardians from reviewing their activity on the app.
他们还指出，18 岁以下的用户正在利用漏洞绕过年龄限制的内容，并阻止父母和监护人查看他们在应用程序上的活动。
TikTok also refrained from conducting surveys to assess the ages of its users because it was concerned that it would have to turn the results over to the Federal Trade Commission, the documents show.
文件显示，TikTok 还没有进行评估用户年龄的调查，因为它担心必须将结果提交给联邦贸易委员会。
NPR repeatedly sought comment from TikTok about the issues raised in the court documents.
NPR 多次寻求 TikTok 对法庭文件中提出的问题发表评论。
After extended communications, the company initially declined to provide a statement for this story.
经过进一步沟通，该公司最初拒绝就此事发表声明。
It did, however, direct NPR to various company policies that it had previously published on its website.
不过，它确实将 NPR 引导至之前在其网站上发布的各种公司政策。
After publication, TikTok spokesperson Nathaniel Brown sent a statement saying the citations and claims in the story are "clearly cherry-picked at the behest of trial lawyers and used to inaccurately rewrite our history and mislead the public about our commitment to youth safety and how our platform works."
报道发布后，TikTok 发言人纳撒尼尔·布朗 (Nathaniel Brown) 发表声明称，报道中的引用和主张“显然是根据审判律师的要求精心挑选的，用于不准确地改写我们的历史，并误导公众了解我们对青少年安全的承诺以及我们平台的运作方式。”
TikTok, alongside Meta, Google and Snap, is a defendant in multi-district litigation initiated in 2022 to coordinate hundreds of lawsuits alleging that the social media platforms are designed to be harmful to users under 18, and that the companies knew their products carried risks that they did not disclose.
TikTok 与 Meta、谷歌和 Snap 一样，是 2022 年发起的多区诉讼的被告，该诉讼协调了数百起诉讼，指控这些社交媒体平台的设计目的是对 18 岁以下用户有害，而且这些公司知道自己的产品存在他们没有披露的风险。
TikTok has settled several cases in the multi-district litigation before they reached trial, including a landmark trial in Los Angeles earlier this year, in which a jury found that co-defendants YouTube and Meta designed their platforms to be addictive to young users.
TikTok 在进入审判之前已经在多地区诉讼中解决了几起案件，其中包括今年早些时候在洛杉矶举行的一次具有里程碑意义的审判，其中陪审团发现共同被告 YouTube 和 Meta 设计的平台是为了让年轻用户上瘾。
In May, TikTok agreed to pay $8 million to settle a youth mental health and addiction lawsuit brought by a school district in rural Kentucky.
今年 5 月，TikTok 同意支付 800 万美元，以和解肯塔基州农村地区一个学区提起的青少年心理健康和成瘾诉讼。
In a separate lawsuit, TikTok agreed to a $100 million settlement with the state of Alabama in September over allegations it designed its platform to be addictive to minors and exposed them to harmful content.
在另一起诉讼中，TikTok 于 9 月同意与阿拉巴马州达成 1 亿美元和解，指控其平台设计使未成年人上瘾，并让他们接触有害内容。
Because the cases against TikTok have yet to be heard before a jury, the previously unreported employee depositions reviewed by NPR have not been submitted as evidence at trial.
由于针对 TikTok 的案件尚未在陪审团面前审理，因此 NPR 审查过的之前未报道的员工证词尚未在审判时作为证据提交。
In 2024, NPR reported on improperly redacted documents from another legal case that revealed that company employees sought to maximize teenagers' use of the app even while it publicly backed screentime limits for younger users.
2024 年，NPR 报道了另一起法律案件中经过不当编辑的文件，该案件显示，公司员工试图最大限度地扩大青少年对应用程序的使用，尽管该公司公开支持对年轻用户的屏幕时间限制。
In one deposition , Reagen Maher, who held senior roles in safety and investigations at TikTok between 2021 and 2024, described going on a "crusade" for several months trying to elevate safety issues with some of TikTok's highest executives.
2021 年至 2024 年间在 TikTok 担任安全和调查高级职务的里根·马赫 (Reagen Maher) 在一份证词中表示，他将进行几个月的“讨伐”，试图向 TikTok 的一些最高管理人员提出安全问题。
Maher testified that her findings had been escalated to V Pappas, TikTok's chief operating officer at the time.
马赫作证说，她的调查结果已上报给 TikTok 时任首席运营官 V Pappas。
In an excerpt from a log of an internal chat Maher had with a colleague, which was read out in her testimony, she wrote: "I have been fighting about fixing this for months with people who didn't think the harms are severe enough."
马赫在证词中宣读了马赫与一位同事的内部聊天记录的摘录，她写道：“几个月来，我一直在与那些认为危害不够严重的人一起努力解决这个问题。”
Maher said she was concerned about the prevalence of "transactional sexual content and any viewers," including children and teenagers appearing in the content and watching it.
马赫表示，她担心“交易性内容和任何观众”的盛行，包括出现在内容中并观看的儿童和青少年。
In her deposition, Maher answered questions about a 2022 article in Forbes reporting that minors had been stripping on TikTok's Live feature, sometimes in exchange for digital currency known as a "gift," which can be converted into money via a payment platform or bank transfer.
马赫在证词中回答了有关《福布斯》2022 年一篇文章的问题，该文章报道称未成年人在 TikTok 的 Live 功能上脱衣，有时是为了换取被称为“礼物”的数字货币，这种货币可以通过支付平台或银行转账兑换成金钱。
Maher stated the company was aware of the sexual exploitation of minors on the platform before the Forbes article was published.
马赫表示，在福布斯文章发表之前，该公司就意识到该平台上存在对未成年人的性剥削。
"Put simply, senior leaders know about this issue.
“简单来说，高级领导人知道这个问题。
There are some ongoing projects to fix parts of it, and frankly, I'm hoping [that] this article puts a fire behind other potential solutions," Maher wrote in an internal chat at the time a colleague.
有一些正在进行的项目来修复其中的一部分，坦率地说，我希望这篇文章能够激发其他潜在解决方案的热情，”马赫在当时的同事内部聊天中写道。
In 2021, TikTok introduced age-based account settings that restrict some features for 13 to 17-year-olds, including limits on sending and receiving direct messages and broadcasting in real time on TikTok Live.
2021 年，TikTok 引入了基于年龄的帐户设置，限制了 13 至 17 岁青少年的部分功能，包括限制发送和接收私信以及在 TikTok Live 上实时广播。
An internal investigation found children between the ages of 13 and 15 appeared in 112,000 TikTok Live videos in January 2022 alone, according to employees' testimony in the March court filings.
根据 3 月份法庭文件中员工的证词，一项内部调查发现，仅 2022 年 1 月，就有 112,000 个 TikTok Live 视频中出现了 13 至 15 岁的儿童。
The report identified risks including adult predators grooming children and the creation of child sexual abuse material.
该报告指出了风险，包括成年掠夺者诱骗儿童以及制作儿童性虐待材料。
It also found that TikTok received "significant revenue" from gifts sent to livestreams that violated the platform's rules.
它还发现，TikTok 从违反平台规则的直播礼物中获得了“大量收入”。
Federal law in the U.S. can impose criminal liability on a company for knowingly benefiting from participation in a child sex trafficking venture, said Silvija Krupena, director of the Financial Intelligence Unit at RedCompass Labs, a consultancy based in the U.K.
英国咨询公司 RedCompass Labs 金融情报部门主管西尔维娅·克鲁佩纳 (Silvija Krupena) 表示，美国联邦法律可以对故意从参与儿童性贩运活动中获利的公司追究刑事责任。
"If an adult pays a child, through virtual gifts, for sexual acts on a livestream, that is payment for the sexual exploitation of a child.
“如果成年人通过虚拟礼物向儿童支付直播中的性行为费用，那就是对儿童的性剥削。
The gift is the payment," said Krupena.
礼物就是报酬，”克鲁佩纳说。
"Strip out the language of gifts, coins and diamonds, and the allegation is clear then.
“除去礼物、硬币和钻石的语言，指控就很清楚了。
An adult paid.
一个成年人付了钱。
A child was exploited.
一个孩子被剥削了。
The platform took a cut."
平台受到了削减。”
Platforms must report apparent child sexual abuse material, child sex trafficking and online enticement to the nonprofit National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) when they obtain actual knowledge of facts indicating offenses covered by the reporting law.
当平台实际了解报告法所涵盖的犯罪事实时，必须向非营利性国家失踪和受虐儿童中心 (NCMEC) 报告明显的儿童性虐待材料、儿童性贩运和在线诱惑。
Money generated through child exploitation offences can be criminal proceeds.
通过剥削儿童犯罪产生的金钱可能是犯罪所得。
Knowingly processing those funds can amount to money laundering.
明知而处理这些资金可能构成洗钱行为。
If the gifting system qualifies as regulated money transmission, anti-money laundering obligations may follow.
如果礼品系统符合受监管的货币传输条件，则可能需要承担反洗钱义务。
Knowledge matters a great deal, particularly when assessing potential criminal liability, which is why warnings to executives matter, said Krupena.
克鲁佩纳说，知识非常重要，特别是在评估潜在的刑事责任时，这就是为什么对高管的警告很重要。
In an ongoing lawsuit filed in 2024, Utah's attorney general alleged that TikTok's Live feature exposed minors to sexual exploitation by adults, while TikTok profited from the transactions.
在 2024 年提起的一项持续诉讼中，犹他州总检察长声称 TikTok 的 Live 功能使未成年人遭受成年人的性剥削，而 TikTok 从这些交易中获利。
TikTok said it has an anti-money laundering program in line with international standards and the industry's best practices.
TikTok表示，其拥有符合国际标准和行业最佳实践的反洗钱计划。
The company did not respond to requests for comment on whether it reported all of the TikTok Live videos containing child sexual abuse material to NCMEC, as required by federal law.
该公司没有回应关于是否按照联邦法律的要求向 NCMEC 报告所有包含儿童性虐待内容的 TikTok Live 视频的置评请求。
The company also did not respond to questions about whether it had shut down the accounts it identified paying for child sexual abuse content.
该公司也没有回答有关其是否已关闭其确定为儿童性虐待内容付费的账户的问题。
The company did not respond to NPR's questions about its anti-money laundering protocols, including whether it filed suspicious activity reports to the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network related to the revenues it received from TikTok Live videos containing illegal material.
该公司没有回应 NPR 关于其反洗钱协议的问题，包括是否向财政部金融犯罪执法网络提交了与从包含非法材料的 TikTok Live 视频中获得的收入有关的可疑活动报告。
TikTok also did not answer questions about how it handled revenue it identified as coming from child sexual abuse material, including whether it forfeited those funds or retained them as profit.
TikTok 也没有回答有关其如何处理来自儿童性虐待内容的收入的问题，包括是否没收这些资金或将其保留为利润。
Other employee testimony highlighted TikTok's difficulties in preventing users under 18 from accessing adult-only features and harmful content.
其他员工的证词强调了 TikTok 在阻止 18 岁以下用户访问仅限成人的功能和有害内容方面遇到的困难。
To determine the age of its users, TikTok requires users to enter their date of birth when signing up for the platform.
为了确定用户的年龄，TikTok 要求用户在注册该平台时输入出生日期。
In most countries, 13 is the minimum age for an account.
在大多数国家/地区，13 岁是帐户的最低年龄。
The company says it also analyzes data associated with an account to identify those where the stated age may be incorrect.
该公司表示，它还会分析与帐户相关的数据，以识别那些所表述的年龄可能不正确的帐户。
In these cases, accounts can be sent for human review and potentially placed in a different age-appropriate experience.
在这些情况下，可以将帐户发送给人工审核，并可能将其置于不同的适合年龄的体验中。
Yet, according to Maher's testimony, a loophole existed in which children could access an 18-plus version of TikTok if they signed up via Google, Facebook or Instagram.
然而，根据 Maher 的证词，存在一个漏洞，如果儿童通过 Google、Facebook 或 Instagram 注册，就可以访问 18 岁以上版本的 TikTok。
Maher said senior leadership was aware of this, though the company did not respond to NPR's questions about the loophole.
马赫表示，高级领导层已经意识到这一点，但该公司没有回应 NPR 关于该漏洞的问题。
TikTok has grown to become one of the most widely used social media apps globally, with 68% of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 reporting using the platform in 2025, according to the Pew Research Center.
皮尤研究中心 (Pew Research Center) 的数据显示，TikTok 已发展成为全球使用最广泛的社交媒体应用程序之一，到 2025 年，13 至 17 岁的美国青少年中将有 68% 使用该平台。
The app first became prominent in 2018, when ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, acquired Musical.ly, a platform for creating short music and lip-syncing videos that was popular with teen users in the U.S. Musical.ly was combined with TikTok, triggering rapid growth in the app's international user base.
该应用程序首次出名是在 2018 年，当时 TikTok 的母公司字节跳动收购了深受美国青少年用户欢迎的音乐短视频和口型同步视频平台 Musical.ly。Musical.ly 与 TikTok 合并，引发了该应用程序国际用户群的快速增长。
(As of January 22, 2026, TikTok's U.S. operations are majority-owned by American investors, following a deal that reduced ByteDance's control over the platform.)
（截至 2026 年 1 月 22 日，在一项减少字节跳动对该平台控制权的交易之后，TikTok 美国业务的多数股权由美国投资者持有。）
Soon after the 2018 merger with Musical.ly, the company was keen to determine the demographics of its user base in the U.S. But the court documents show that it held off on researching the question in an effort to avoid government scrutiny over having children under the age of 13 on the platform.
2018 年与 Musical.ly 合并后不久，该公司急于确定其美国用户群的人口统计数据。但法庭文件显示，该公司推迟了对这个问题的研究，以避免政府对 13 岁以下儿童使用该平台的审查。
In testimony concerning a 2018 discussion between Adam Wang, who was the Head of TikTok Live at the time, and Alex Zhu, co-founder of Musical.ly and then president of TikTok following the acquisition of Musical.ly, the two discussed a survey.
在关于 2018 年 TikTok Live 负责人 Adam Wang 与 Musical.ly 联合创始人、收购 Musical.ly 后时任 TikTok 总裁 Alex Zhu 之间讨论的证词中，两人讨论了一项调查。
They noted that "Having elementary school [as an answer in the survey] is definitely violating COPPA [the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act]," Wang confirmed in his testimony.
他们指出，“[调查中的答案]上小学绝对违反了 COPPA [儿童在线隐私保护法]，”王在他的证词中证实。
Because of this, the survey avoided questions that could point to users' ages, such as what phase of schooling users were enrolled in.
因此，调查避免了可能指向用户年龄的问题，例如用户注册的学校教育阶段。
COPPA is a federal law that protects the online privacy and personal information of children under 13.
COPPA 是一项联邦法律，旨在保护 13 岁以下儿童的在线隐私和个人信息。
It generally prohibits companies from collecting children's personal information without verifiable parental consent.
它通常禁止公司在未经可验证的父母同意的情况下收集儿童的个人信息。
"If the FTC knows about this survey, they might want us to submit the results, and I am not sure if it's [a] good result," Wang said in an internal chat.
“如果联邦贸易委员会知道这项调查，他们可能会希望我们提交结果，但我不确定这是否是一个好的结果，”王在一次内部聊天中说道。
TikTok introduced " family pairing " features in 2020, which allow parents and guardians to manage aspects of their children's use of the platform, including screen-time restrictions, content filters and privacy settings.
TikTok 在 2020 年推出了“家庭配对”功能，允许父母和监护人管理孩子使用该平台的各个方面，包括屏幕时间限制、内容过滤器和隐私设置。
However, teen TikTok accounts contained a hidden link that allowed users to unlink from "family pairing," according to a 2021 internal chat filed as evidence in the lawsuit.
然而，根据在诉讼中作为证据提交的 2021 年内部聊天记录，青少年 TikTok 帐户包含一个隐藏链接，允许用户取消与“家庭配对”的链接。
"This renders the function kinda pointless," noted Jordon Furlong, Group Product Manager, Digital Wellness between 2021 and 2024, in the chat.
“这使得该功能有点毫无意义，”2021 年至 2024 年数字健康集团产品经理 Jordon Furlong 在聊天中指出。
TikTok said it notifies parents' accounts when a minor unlinks from family pairing.
TikTok 表示，当未成年人取消与家庭配对的链接时，它会通知父母的账户。
Among the most serious concerns raised in the testimony was TikTok's handling of content related to suicide and self-harm for young users.
证词中提出的最严重的担忧之一是 TikTok 对年轻用户自杀和自残相关内容的处理。
Testimony from Eric Han , who was TikTok's head of safety from April 2019 through June 2023, detailed internal chats he'd engaged in concerning "rabbit holes" — the company's term for when the algorithm gets stuck showing the user the same type of content over and over again.
埃里克·汉 (Eric Han) 在 2019 年 4 月至 2023 年 6 月期间担任 TikTok 安全主管，他在证词中详细介绍了他参与的有关“兔子洞”的内部聊天。“兔子洞”是该公司的术语，指算法在一遍又一遍地向用户显示相同类型的内容时遇到问题。
Han said he became aware of this problem in April 2020, and acknowledged that rabbit holes could be harmful, such as ones focusing on body image or suicide, and could violate TikTok's policies.
韩表示，他于 2020 年 4 月意识到这个问题，并承认兔子洞可能有害，例如关注身体形象或自杀的兔子洞，并且可能违反 TikTok 的政策。
An internal report authored and circulated by Han in 2020 and discussed in his testimony stated that there is a "Real contagion effect.
韩在 2020 年撰写和分发的一份内部报告在他的证词中进行了讨论，指出存在“真正的传染效应”。
Suicidal ideation and behavior, and the way that it is talked about on the platform."
自杀意念和行为，以及平台上谈论它的方式。”
In a draft of TikTok's 2020 "Minor Safety Policy Annual Review", which was also quoted in Han's deposition, included bullet points stating: "Social media is inherently dangerous, and all minors are at risk when they engage on the platform" and "Minor Safety is an urgent issue that we must address effectively."
韩的证词中也引用了 TikTok 2020 年“未成年人安全政策年度审查”草案，其中包括以下要点：“社交媒体本质上是危险的，所有未成年人在使用该平台时都面临风险”和“未成年人安全是我们必须有效解决的紧迫问题”。
Despite this, Han said the platform did not warn parents of the potential dangers of TikTok.
尽管如此，韩表示该平台并未警告家长 TikTok 的潜在危险。