Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed a civil complaint against TikTok in Maricopa County Superior Court, accusing the social media giant of designing its app to compulsively hook children and teens while hiding the potential harms from their parents. The lawsuit alleges TikTok's own features, from endless scrolling to beauty filters, were built specifically to maximize how long minors stay glued to their screens.
According to Courthouse News Service, Mayes sued TikTok this past Thursday, accusing the company of intentionally addicting and endangering Arizona children and teens. The complaint, as reported by 12News, says TikTok's strategy of purposefully addicting minors caused widespread and significant injury to Arizona minors and consumers generally, and that the company misled Arizona parents about the risks their kids faced on the platform.
Design Features Under Fire
Mayes's lawsuit alleges TikTok was engineered to maximize compulsive use among minors, including children younger than 13, in order to profit from their data, according to KVOA. The station reports that the complaint singles out infinite scrolling, autoplay, push notifications and appearance-altering filters as the manipulative design tactics at the heart of the case. Per the 12News report, the complaint further argues these features hinder users' free decision-making abilities and compel compulsive platform use.
The lawsuit also claims TikTok concealed and misrepresented the risks tied to juveniles using the platform while working to create the impression that user wellbeing was its paramount concern, 12News reports. Courthouse News adds that Mayes alleges TikTok minimizes or entirely fails to disclose potential harms like increased risks of depression, anxiety, sleep disruption, disordered eating, body-image distress and self-harm.
Fraud Counts and Penalties Sought
The complaint lodges counts under the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act for deceptive acts and practices, unlawful concealments and omissions, and unfair practices, the same Courthouse News report states. That state law defines deception, false pretenses, false promises, misrepresentation and the intentional concealment or omission of a material fact as unlawful practices, according to the Arizona Legislature's statute.
Mayes is seeking injunctive relief, disgorgement of profits tied to the alleged deceptive acts, and up to $10,000 for each willful violation, the outlet reports. A TikTok spokesperson pushed back hard, saying the lawsuit relies on misleading and inaccurate claims and ignores the company's voluntary safety measures, and that TikTok will vigorously defend against the allegations.
Part of a Wider Legal Pattern
Arizona's case lands amid a broader wave of legal pressure on TikTok over youth safety. Alabama sued TikTok and its owner, ByteDance, in 2025 over allegations the app harmed youths and misled users about its safety, according to the New York Times. That case ended last month when TikTok agreed to pay Alabama at least $100 million and make safety changes, including a two-hour daily limit for underage users, additional parental controls, and restrictions on unlimited scrolling, overnight access and beauty filters, the Times reported.
Arizona school districts have separately sued TikTok and other social media companies over allegations the platforms harmed students' mental health, and a group of states announced a similar lawsuit against TikTok in 2024, per 12News. Public sentiment on the issue has shifted too: Pew Research Center found that 48% of U.S. teens said social media had a mostly negative effect on people their age in 2024, up from 32% in 2022, though just 14% said it negatively affected them personally and 45% said they spent too much time on it. Pew surveyed 1,391 teens and their parents and noted the findings reflect perspectives rather than proof of causality.
The U.S. surgeon general's advisory, cited by the Department of Health and Human Services, has said children and adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of mental health problems including symptoms of depression and anxiety. How Arizona's case against TikTok will play out in Maricopa County Superior Court remains to be seen as the litigation moves forward.
