Fourteen attorneys general, led by officials in New York and California, filed lawsuits Tuesday accusing the social media platform TikTok of damaging young users’ mental health and collecting their data without consent. “Young people are struggling with their mental health because of addictive social media platforms like TikTok,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. In recent years, a growing number of health professionals have sounded the alarm about the effects of excessive social media use on mental and physical health, particularly among children and teenagers. Earlier this year, the Senate Judiciary Committee grilled the CEOs of TikTok, Meta and X during a hearing about online child safety and youth mental health. But the service’s rise has been shadowed by concerns about mental health, as well as national security.

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Persons: TikTok, “ Young, Letitia James, “ TikTok, ’ ”, We've, Vivek Murthy, Murthy, Jonathan Haidt’s “, Haidt, ” TikTok, ” James ’ Organizations: ” New York, The New York Times, Committee, Republican, Democratic Locations: New York, California, ”, America, China, Beijing, California , Illinois , Kentucky, Louisiana , Massachusetts , Mississippi , New Jersey , New York, North Carolina , Oregon, South Carolina , Vermont, Washington