Seven French families have filed a lawsuit against TikTok, accusing the platform of exposing their teenage children to harmful content that led two of them to take their own lives when they were 15, their lawyer said.
The lawsuit alleges that TikTok’s algorithm exposed the seven teenagers to videos promoting suicide, self-harm and eating disorders, lawyer Laure Boutron-Marmion told broadcaster Franceinfo on Monday.
The families take joint legal action before the Créteil judicial court in Paris. Boutron-Marmion said it was the first cluster case of its kind in Europe.
“Parents want TikTok’s legal responsibility to be recognized in court,” he said, adding: “It is a commercial company that offers a product to consumers who are also minors. Therefore, they must answer for the deficiencies of the product.”
TikTok, like other social media platforms, has long faced scrutiny over the surveillance of its app’s content.
Like Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, it faces hundreds of lawsuits in the United States, accusing it of attracting and addicting millions of children to its platform, damaging their mental health.
Last month, more than a dozen states and the District of Columbia filed lawsuits against the Chinese-owned company, alleging that it is harming children’s mental health with a product designed to be used compulsively and excessively.
In response to the lawsuits, a TikTok spokesperson said: “We strongly disagree with these claims, many of which we believe are inaccurate and misleading.”
The company has previously said it takes issues related to children’s mental health seriously.
Its chief executive, Shou Zi Chew, told US lawmakers this year that the company had invested in measures to protect young people who use the app.
Reuters contributed to this article.