The topic of child safety has become a part of a political war against TikTok. It forms a key aspect of the legislation that might ban the app in the US. Furthermore, it has also been the subject of dozens of lawsuits against the app.
Now, accidentally unredacted court documents obtained by The Washington Post reveal something huge. They suggest that another tech company, Apple, is also sparring with TikTok over child safety.
These documents reveal that Apple warned TikTok that it did not believe the app to be fit for children under the age of 17. The documents came from a recent lawsuit filed by South Carolina, in which Apple claimed that TikTok featured “frequent or intense mature or suggestive content.”
What is TikTok’s age limit on the Apple app store?
Currently, TikTok is rated to be for ages 12 and over on the Apple App Store. To apply to this rating, mature content must be “infrequent” or “mild.” However, the documents show that Apple reviewed this rating, and it suggested to TikTok that the app should be raised to a 17+ age limit.
“We hope you will consider making the necessary changes to follow the App Store Review Guidelines and will resubmit your rating,” Apple told TikTok in the documents.
In response to this warning, TikTok purportedly took “aggressive strategies” to try and filter out inappropriate content. However, South Carolina alleged that this strategy wasn’t enough, and the state claimed that TikTok was misleading viewers about how mature the app was.
Furthermore, South Carolina claimed in its lawsuit that one 1 in 50 of TikTok’s notifications to minors featured profane language.
Both Apple and South Carolina declined the Washington Post’s request for comment.
Alex Haurek, a spokesperson for TikTok, said in a statement that it’s “irresponsible for the Washington Post to publish information that was faultily redacted and then corrected by the South Carolina Attorney General’s office.”
According to him, “many of these issues have already been addressed.” He then added that TikTok “has always enforced strict policies against nudity, sexually explicit content, and solicitation.”
