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TikTok is not complying with social media law restricting minors, state says. Uthmeier files civil suit, seeking injunction and money damages. By: jay waagmeester - june 15, 2026 2:44 pm. Attorney General James Uthmeier is seeking damages from TikTok, claiming the tech giant is not complying with Florida's 2024 social media ban for minors. Uthmeier filed a civil lawsuit against TikTok Monday, asking a state trial court to declare the company a public nuisance for not complying with state law requiring 14- and 15-year-olds to have a parent's consent to use social media apps. "Florida children, teens, and their parents are facing a crisis: the widespread, compulsive use of social media platforms specifically designed to be addictive," Uthmeier wrote in the filing in the St. Lucie County court. In a response to the Phoenix, a TikTok spokesperson said the company has been "engaging constructively and in good faith with the AG and have notified users under 14 in Florida that their accounts will be suspended." The platform, the spokesperson said, is continuing to update in response to the 2024 law. "TikTok is built with safety at its core, with more than 50 preset safety and privacy settings for teens and easy-to-use tools for parents... We are evaluating the state's complaint and are prepared to defend our strong record on minor safety," the spokesperson said. The 2024 law, which was not enforced until legal exchanges concluded in November 2025, also requires social media companies to prohibit children 13 and younger from using any app containing addictive features such as endless scrolling, push notifications, auto-play videos, and live-streaming. This is the first lawsuit the state has pursued against a company for not following the law since it started being enforced. The initial 2024 legal challenges to the law were filed by NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association. Those groups are made up of tech giants such as Meta, eBay, Google, Pinterest, Reddit, Discord, and Amazon. TikTok is not a member of those associations. Uthmeier said during a news conference in Fort Lauderdale that TikTok is looking at "potentially billions in damages." "TikTok represents to Florida parents and Florida children that mature content on its platform, including drugs, nudity, alcohol, and profanity, is 'infrequent,'" the complaint states. "Those representations are lies. Music, videos, and other content available on the TikTok app contain sexual content, drugs, alcohol, intense profanity, self-harm messages, and other X-rated content, all of which are frequently and easily accessible at the fingertips and swipes of Florida tweens and teens." Uthmeier said in November at the end of the legal challenge that he would "aggressively enforce" the social media ban, a top priority of then-House Speaker Paul Renner. Uthmeier said in the suit that TikTok does not require parental consent, as the law demands, for users 14 and 15 years old. The state claims TikTok's description of itself in the app store as having "infrequent/mild" sexual content and nudity constitutes an unfair business practice. "Users who type only a few letters into the TikTok app's search bar will be presented with search suggestions that lead to frequent and intense profanity; crude humor; alcohol, tobacco, and drug use and references; sexual content or nudity; and mature or suggestive themes," the lawsuit claims. During a news conference announcing the lawsuit Monday, Uthmeier said there could be further legislative action in addressing social media restriction for young Floridians. "I know we've done a lot of good work to protect children from those harms," Uthmeier said, referring to "blatant pornography." "To the extent these platforms are not falling under that law, we definitely are going to go back this year and strengthen that legislation if we need to protect in some of these other areas," Uthmeier said. The attorney general said tech companies have gotten a "hall pass" for the past decade or more. "TikTok knew and intended to evade the parental controls on Apple devices when it rated its app '12+' and now '13+,'" the state claims. Uthmeier is asking the court to declare TikTok a public nuisance, stop it from violating the law, and impose a $50,000 fine for each violation. Uthmeier said for, the complaint against the company is only civil. "If there's evidence that senior officials designed this application knowing that these types of criminal activities would take place and nevertheless let it happen, there could be liability there, but today's complaint is civil," Uthmeier said during the news conference Monday, comparing the situation to the story of Dr. Frankenstein's refusal to take accountability for the monster he created. This story was updated to include a response from TikTok

Why TikTok is expanding its premium ads push and what that means for you. Senior Paid Media Manager Key takeaways. * TikTok launched four new or expanded premium ad formats at its 2026 Newfronts: Logo Takeover, Prime Time, TopReach, and expanded Pulse offerings. * More than 200 million Americans are on TikTok, and the platform reaches 1.99 billion monthly active users globally. * Early results on Logo Takeover showed double-digit lifts in brand awareness and purchase intent. * TikTok's engagement rate of 3.7 percent is nearly eight times higher than Instagram and twenty-five times higher than Facebook. * The platform is positioning itself as a full-funnel engine, with commerce and lower-funnel capabilities maturing alongside its reach. * TikTok-native creative authenticity remains essential, even within premium placements. TikTok-native creative authenticity remains essential, even within premium placements TikTok's 2026 IAB NewFronts presentation made one thing clear: the platform is no longer asking brands to treat it as a social experiment. It is asking for a seat at the table alongside TV and streaming budgets, and the new ad products it unveiled give it a credible case to make. If you are still running TikTok as an afterthought in your media mix, it is time to reassess. The new formats, explained. TikTok's NewFronts announcement introduced a set of formats specifically designed to capture premium brand investment. Logo Takeover places your brand at the moment users open the app, before anything else on the screen competes for attention. It is co-branded with TikTok itself, which carries an implicit credibility signal alongside the raw reach. Early tests showed meaningful lifts in both awareness and purchase intent, giving advertisers an actual benchmark to work from rather than just a pitch. Prime Time is a sequential format that delivers up to three ads from the same brand to the same user within a 15-minute window, timed to high-engagement periods or major cultural moments. The ability to tell a continuous story across multiple exposures in a short window has historically been a TV strength. TikTok is bringing that capability to a mobile-first, creator-driven environment. TopReach combines two existing high-visibility placements into a single buy: the first ad users see when opening the app, and the first in-feed ad in the For You feed. For brands running a major launch or trying to dominate a cultural moment, maximizing unique daily reach through a single purchase is a genuine efficiency gain. The expanded Pulse offerings include Pulse Mentions, which places brands adjacent to conversations already happening about their category, and Pulse Tastemakers, which lets brands align their ads with specific creator communities. Both formats lean into what TikTok does better than any other platform: making ads feel like they belong inside the content experience rather than interrupting it. TikTok has grown past its early reputation. There is still a version of TikTok in many marketing budgets that looks like a niche social channel with unpredictable ROI. That picture is outdated. The numbers tell a different story. TikTok generated $33.1 billion in global advertising revenue in 2025, a 43 percent increase from the year before. Its engagement rate of 3.7 percent sits well above every major social competitor. More than half of TikTok users have purchased from brands after seeing their products featured on the platform. TikTok Shop generated $15.82 billion in U.S. sales in 2025, growing at 108 percent year over year. Stop wasting money and unlock the hidden potential of your advertising. * Discover the power of intentional advertising. * Reach your ideal target audience. * Maximize ad spend efficiency. Only 26 percent of marketers currently run TikTok campaigns. For brands not yet on the platform in a serious way, that gap is the opportunity. Commerce capabilities have matured to the point where lower-funnel performance is genuinely measurable. Creator-led storytelling has proven to drive purchase behavior in ways that traditional video placements often cannot. And now, with premium formats designed to deliver the kind of reach and sequential storytelling that TV has historically owned, TikTok is a legitimate alternative for budgets flowing toward linear and streaming video. The brands that shifted budget toward digital video early, before it was obvious, built advantages that took competitors years to close. The same opportunity exists here. Why cost efficiency matters. Beyond reach and engagement, the cost structure of TikTok advertising makes it worth serious consideration. TikTok ads average a CPM of around $9, compared to Meta's average Facebook CPM of roughly $15. That cost advantage combined with the platform's higher engagement rate means dollars spent on TikTok tend to produce more interaction per dollar than on competing platforms. That advantage will not last forever. As more advertisers move budget onto the platform, auction competition will increase and CPMs will rise. The brands that establish their TikTok presence and learn what works now will be building that knowledge at a lower cost than those who wait. How to approach this. The most common TikTok mistake is importing creative from other channels. A CTV spot or a YouTube pre-roll that performs well will not automatically translate. TikTok rewards content that feels like it was made for the platform and the moment. Even within premium placements, the native feel of the content matters. Research backs this up. Spark Ads deliver 34 percent higher conversions than standard in-feed ads. The best-performing brand content on TikTok does not look like advertising. It looks like something a person would make and share. Getting that balance right, particularly within premium, high-production formats, is the creative challenge. That does not mean sacrificing production quality. The new format are built for exactly the intersection of high production value and platform-native storytelling. Getting both right is the challenge, and it requires thinking about creative from a TikTok-first perspective rather than adapting assets designed for other channels. A few practical steps worth taking now: * Test Logo Takeover and TopReach early, while competition for the placements is lower and cost benchmarks are more favorable. * Revisit your media mix model. If TikTok is still sitting in a social budget silo, it may be underweighted relative to what it can deliver against video and streaming objectives. * Align your paid social and commerce teams. TikTok's lower-funnel capabilities only deliver their full value when both sides of the house are working toward the same goals with the same data. * Pay attention to creator selection. Pulse Tastemakers gives you the ability to align placements with specific creators. Treat that as a targeting decision, not a creative one. The right creator community for your brand will outperform a broad placement every time. FAQs. How is TikTok's ad audience different from other platforms? TikTok reaches 1.99 billion monthly active users globally, with the 25 to 34 age group now its largest single cohort at 40 percent of users. The audience is maturing, meaning the perception that TikTok skews very young is increasingly outdated. The platform also sees daily active users return an average of five to fifteen times per day, making frequency of exposure higher than most other social channels. What makes TikTok advertising different from Meta or YouTube? Is TikTok Shop worth investing in alongside paid ads? What budget should I start with on the new premium formats? Conclusion. TikTok is not pitching itself as a social media platform with ad inventory, but a full-funnel engine where entertainment, commerce, and performance meet. The numbers back that up: global ad revenue growing at 43 percent year over year, engagement rates eight times higher than Instagram, and a commerce operation that grew by more than 100 percent in a single year. The brands that take that seriously now and build creative and budget strategies to match will be harder to catch as the platform continues to mature. The window for establishing a cost-efficient early presence is still open. It will not stay that way indefinitely. Senior Paid Media Manager McKinsey is a Senior Paid Media Manager specializing in paid social and performance marketing with 6 years of industry experience. She has worked across a variety of industries including healthcare, nonprofit, education, and B2B, with expertise in audience strategy, creative testing, and campaign optimization. McKinsey is passionate about combining data, testing, and creative strategy to drive scalable and efficient growth across social platforms.

Canada proposes social media ban for children under 16. Jun 12, 2026 The proposed legislation requires platforms to restrict child exploitation and other harmful content The Canadian government has proposed a bill that would ban social media for children under the age of 16, with potential exemptions for platforms that demonstrate "sufficient safeguards." If passed, social media platforms would be required to implement age verification and reduce children's exposure to harmful content, including child sexual exploitation, non-consensual intimate imagery, self-harm promotion, bullying, hate, violence, and terrorist or extremist material. The bill would also regulate AI chatbots, requiring them to "mitigate the risk" of harmful outputs, and require better reporting from platforms in crisis situations, such as when a user communicates intent to harm themselves or others. A new digital safety regulator would be established to oversee and enforce the rules. "We have seen the very serious consequences that online harms can have. As technologies evolve, we must ensure our laws keep pace, because parents cannot face these challenges alone," Canadian Culture Minister Marc Miller said in the government press release. The bill comes amid growing international efforts to regulate children's online activity. Late last year, Australia became the first nation to ban children under 16 from accessing major social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Brazil and Indonesia introduced their own restrictions in May. France has advanced legislation to bar children under 15 from social media, though the measure has yet to complete the legislative process. Other countries, including the UK, Austria and Denmark, are also developing similar restrictions. Social media giants such as Meta Platforms, TikTok, and YouTube have come under growing scrutiny in recent months, including in a landmark product liability trial in Los Angeles over allegations that they deliberately designed their platforms to be addictive for children. Court filings have also alleged that Meta's Facebook failed to adequately police accounts involved in the sexual exploitation and trafficking of minors, with some illicit content reportedly remaining online until after 16 violations had been recorded. Facebook Comment