西弗吉尼亚州已起诉 TikTok 及其母公司字节跳动，指控这家社交媒体巨头故意让儿童沉迷其应用程序，同时让他们接触到性化内容和潜在的掠食者。
West Virginia has sued TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, accusing the social media giant of deliberately keeping children hooked on its app while exposing them to sexualized content and potential predators.
周四提起的诉讼指控 TikTok 违反了州消费者保护法，利用成瘾性功能鼓励儿童过度使用屏幕时间，同时误导家长其安全措施的有效性。
The lawsuit filed Thursday alleges TikTok violated state consumer protection laws by using addictive features to encourage excessive screen time among children while misleading parents about the effectiveness of its safety measures.
“西弗吉尼亚州的父母不应该不得不与一个旨在让他们的孩子不断滑屏、并向他们推送性化内容的算法竞争，”西弗吉尼亚州总检察长 JB McCuskey 在一份声明中说。“TikTok 将关键的安全漏洞置之不理，将应用程序的增长置于儿童安全之上。” McCuskey 的办公室表示，调查人员创建了两个 TikTok 账户，一个注册为成年人，另一个注册为一名 13 岁女孩。未成年账户反复收到带有性暗示的视频，而成年账户则主要看到关于家居装修、当地餐馆和其他日常兴趣的内容。
“West Virginia parents should not have to compete with an algorithm built to keep their kids scrolling, while targeting them with sexualized content,” West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey said in a statement. “TikTok left critical safety vulnerabilities unaddressed and put growth of the app ahead of children’s safety.”McCuskey’s office said investigators created two TikTok accounts, one registered to an adult and another to a 13-year-old girl. The underage account repeatedly received sexually suggestive videos, while the adult account was largely shown content about home improvement, local restaurants and other everyday interests.
向卡纳瓦县巡回法院提交的起诉书抨击了 TikTok 的推荐算法以及无限滚动、推送通知、点赞和评论等功能。州政府官员辩称，这些功能利用了儿童正在发育的大脑，使未成年用户更难停止使用该应用程序。
The complaint, filed in Kanawha County Circuit Court, ripped TikTok’s recommendation algorithm and features such as endless scrolling, push notifications and likes and comments. State officials argue those features exploit children’s developing brains and make it harder for underage users to stop using the app.
该州还指控该公司夸大了其家长控制功能的有效性，并未能解决可能允许掠食者联系儿童的安全漏洞。
The state also accused the company of overstating the effectiveness of its parental controls and failing to address safety gaps that could allow predators to contact children.
“父母有责任监控孩子在网上的活动，绝对没错。但当 TikTok 这类公司不采取任何行动来堵塞安全漏洞、向家长隐瞒其平台的风险时，父母就被彻底架空了，”McCuskey 说。
“Parents have a responsibility to monitor what their kids are doing online, absolutely. But they are cut off at the knees when companies like TikTok do nothing to close safety loopholes and conceal risks of their platform from parents,” McCuskey said.
随着 TikTok 因其保护未成年用户的保障措施面临越来越大的法律压力，这起诉讼应运而生。
The lawsuit comes as Tiktok faces mounting legal pressure over its safeguards to protect underage users.
本月初，一名得克萨斯州法官裁定，TikTok 误导消费者关于其为未成年人过滤不当内容的努力，认定该公司关于其内容审核政策的主张违反了州消费者保护法。
Earlier this month, a Texas judge ruled that TikTok misled consumers about its efforts to filter inappropriate content for minors, finding that the company’s claims about its content moderation policies violated state consumer protection law.
TikTok 和字节跳动也于本月初同意支付 4 亿美元，以和解司法部的一起诉讼，该诉讼指控该平台在未经父母同意的情况下非法收集 13 岁以下儿童的个人信息。
TikTok and ByteDance also agreed earlier this month to pay $400 million to settle a Justice Department lawsuit alleging the platform illegally collected personal information from children younger than 13 without parental consent.
9 月，TikTok 与阿拉巴马州达成了一项单独的和解协议，金额超过 1 亿美元，针对的是其平台被故意设计成让未成年人上瘾的指控。该协议包括额外的安全保护措施，如屏幕使用时间限制和更强的家长控制功能。
In September, TikTok reached a separate settlement agreement with Alabama worth more than $100 million over allegations that its platform was deliberately designed to be addictive to minors. The agreement includes additional safety protections such as screen time limits and stronger parental controls.