"French lawmaker calls for criminal inquiry into TikTok’s effect on children", 11 September 2025

A French lawmaker has asked the state prosecutor for a criminal investigation into whether TikTok was responsible for “endangering the lives” of its young users... It is now up to the prosecutor to decide whether to open an investigation into the popular short video platform.

The French parliamentary committee was set up to examine TikTok and its psychological effects on young people after a 2024 French lawsuit against the platform by seven families who accused it of exposing their children to content that was pushing them towards ending their lives.

The parliament committee’s final report... found that TikTok was like a “slow poison” to children... The report recommended that children under 15 in France should be banned entirely from using social media, and those aged between 15 and 18 should face a night-time “digital curfew”, meaning social media would be made unavailable to them between 10pm and 8am...

A TikTok spokesperson said: “We categorically reject the commission’s misleading characterisation of our platform that attempts to scapegoat our company on industry-wide and societal challenges. TikTok has an ongoing, robust trust and safety programme with more than 70 features and settings designed specifically to support the safety and wellbeing of teens and families on our platform.”

Executives for TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, told the French parliamentary committee that the app used AI-enhanced moderation that last year caught 98% of content infringing its terms of service in France...