Seven families in France have filed a lawsuit against TikTok for harmful content after two 15-year-olds killed themselves.

In recent years, TikTok’s parent company, Bytedance, has faced a number of lawsuits. These complaints came from families, businesses and even government entities.

Monday, November 4, Reuters reported that seven families in France filed a lawsuit against TikTok. They say the short-lived video app exposed their teenagers to harmful content that led two of them to kill themselves at the age of 15.

The lawsuit alleges that the TikTok For You Page algorithm exposed teenagers in all seven families to videos that promoted suicide, self-harm and eating disorders.

“The parents want TikTok’s legal liability to be recognized in court,” said Laure Boutron-Marmion, the lawyer representing all seven families.

“This is a commercial company offering a product to consumers who are, moreover, minors. Therefore, they must be held accountable for product deficiencies.”

TikTok

Reuters says this is the first lawsuit of its kind filed in Europe, but it is far from the first lawsuit TikTok has faced in recent years.

5,000 parents filed a lawsuit against the short video app in January, with claims that content on the site is “poisoning America’s youth.”

Whether or not users become addicted to the platform has been questioned with a lawsuit since August 2024, as man sues TikTok, Reddit, YouTube and Meta for being ‘too addictive’ and claimed that all sites were developed in a way that keeps users engaged.

In October, 13 US states filed a lawsuit against TikTok alleging similar issues with addictive qualities, citing things like beauty filters and auto-scrolling videos as parts of the app that harm children.

Dexerto spoke with a wrongful death attorney in September who told us TikTok Could Face ‘Significant Damage’ as more and more children die after going viral. The latest dangerous trend, the subway surfing challenge, has resulted in several deaths including a 17-year-old.