TikTok Staff Depositions Detail Paid Live Content Involving Minors and Skipped Age Surveys

Since employee depositions were filed in federal court in March 2026 in the multi-district litigation against TikTok, Meta, Google and Snap, the testimony has stayed out of public view. Court records now surfaced by NPR put names and specifics on what TikTok staff say they told leadership.

The litigation began in 2022 and coordinates hundreds of lawsuits. The plaintiffs allege the platforms are designed to harm users under 18 and that the companies knew of risks they did not disclose.

The Live feature and paid content

Reagen Maher held senior safety and investigations roles at TikTok from 2021 to 2024. In her deposition, Maher described flagging what she called "transactional sexual content" to then-CEO V Pappas. The content involved minors stripping on TikTok's Live feature in exchange for "gifts" that viewers buy and that can be converted into real currency.

That structure is the problem employees raised: viewers pay to access the content, and the company profits. Staff warned that this could amount to a financial crime, according to the filings.

Forbes reported on the issue in 2022. Maher testified that the company already knew about the sexual exploitation concerns before that article ran.

An internal chat excerpt quotes her telling a colleague: "I have been fighting about fixing this for months with people who didn't think the harms are severe enough." She continued: "Put simply, senior leaders know about this issue. There are some ongoing projects to fix parts of it, and frankly, I'm hoping [that] this article puts a fire behind other potential solutions."

That last line adds context. Maher's own message acknowledges that some fixes were in progress at the time.

Suicide content and the algorithm

Eric Han, TikTok's former head of safety, testified about harmful algorithm "rabbit holes." In an internal TikTok report from 2020, Han described a "real contagion effect" involving "suicidal ideation and behavior."

Han wrote that "minor safety is an urgent issue that we must address effectively." His deposition says TikTok nonetheless did not warn parents about the potential dangers of their children using the platform.

Age checks and the FTC

Employees also flagged that users under 18 were using loopholes to get around age-restricted content. They said teens were also blocking parents and guardians from reviewing their activity.

The filings say TikTok refrained from running surveys to assess how old its users actually were. The reason given in the documents: the company was concerned it would have to turn the results over to the Federal Trade Commission.

No agency action tied to that specific claim has been announced in these records.

TikTok's response and its settlements

TikTok declined to provide a statement after extended communications with NPR. It pointed the outlet to company policies already published on its website. It did not immediately respond to TechCrunch's request for comment.

The company has chosen to settle rather than try several of these cases. In May, TikTok agreed to pay $8 million to settle a youth mental health and addiction suit brought by a school district in rural Kentucky. In September, it agreed to a $100 million settlement with Alabama over allegations that it designed its platform to be addictive to minors and exposed them to harmful content.

TikTok also settled before a landmark Los Angeles trial earlier this year. At that trial, a jury found that co-defendants YouTube and Meta designed their platforms to be addictive to young users.

Settlements are not admissions of liability, and nothing in the depositions is a finding by a court. The testimony comes from former employees describing internal disputes, and TikTok has not publicly responded to the specific accounts.

What comes next

The depositions sit in a docket where hundreds of claims remain pending against the four companies. Since TikTok has settled the cases that came closest to a jury, the testimony from Maher and Han has not been tested before one. Whether the remaining plaintiffs use it at trial, or TikTok settles again first, is the open question.