Thirteen states and the District of Columbia filed lawsuits against TikTok on Tuesday, accusing the social media giant of intentionally hooking young children on short videos that increase their anxiety and depression.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta and New York Attorney General Letitia James led a bipartisan coalition of top law enforcement officials in filing the complaints.

The attorneys general filed lawsuits separately in their jurisdictions, seeking injunctions and a wide range of civil and punitive damages. 

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Officially, TikTok prohibits children under 13 from signing up for regular accounts and restricts content for all users under 18. 

But the lawsuits contend that children can and do easily bypass those restrictions, allowing them to access adult content as an algorithm floods them with addictive and dangerous videos young brains are unprepared to process.

“Our investigation has revealed that TikTok cultivates social media addiction to boost corporate profits,” said Mr. Bonta, a Democrat. “TikTok intentionally targets children because they know kids do not yet have the defenses or capacity to create healthy boundaries around addictive content.” 

“TikTok claims that their platform is safe for young people, but that is far from true,” added Ms. James, also a Democrat. “In New York and across the country, young people have died or gotten injured doing dangerous TikTok challenges and many more are feeling more sad, anxious, and depressed because of TikTok’s addictive features.”

The lawsuits noted a dizzying array of viral TikTok “challenges” that have sparked an uptick in hooliganism and petty crime nationwide since the pandemic.

For example, Ms. James pointed to the example of a 15-year-old boy who died in Manhattan while “subway surfing,” a trend he saw in TikTok videos that depict people riding on top of moving subway cars.

The video-streaming platform is also facing similar legal challenges from the state of Texas and the federal government, which has scrutinized its Chinese owners over security concerns that they mine Americans’ private data and send it back to their Communist government.

Under a federal law that went into effect this year, TikTok could be banned from the U.S. if Chinese parent company ByteDance doesn’t sell the platform by mid-January. The company is currently appealing the law in a case that may reach the Supreme Court.

In a suit filed last week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton accused the platform of violating a state law designed to protect the privacy and safety of children online. His complaint seeks up to $10,000 in penalties for each verified violation and an injunction against future infractions. 

“I will continue to hold TikTok and other Big Tech companies accountable for exploiting Texas children and failing to prioritize minors’ online safety and privacy,” said Mr. Paxton, a Republican. “Texas law requires social media companies to take steps to protect kids online and requires them to provide parents with tools to do the same. TikTok and other social media companies cannot ignore their duties under Texas law.”

TikTok has repeatedly touted safety policies designed to remove underage users, limit screen time, allow families to share profiles and respect the data privacy of users under 16.

In a statement emailed Tuesday to The Washington Times, TikTok spokesman Michael Hughes doubled down on those protocols. He said the company has worked with state attorneys general “for over two years” on safety features and called the lawsuits “incredibly disappointing.”

“We strongly disagree with these claims, many of which we believe to be inaccurate and misleading,” Mr. Hughes said. “We’re proud of and remain deeply committed to the work we’ve done to protect teens and we will continue to update and improve our product.” 

The lawsuits come as public officials have warned of a youth mental health crisis fueled by increased social media use during pandemic lockdowns of schools and other social outlets for young people. 

Multiple studies have shown reports of youth depression, anxiety and suicidal tendencies surging in recent years — with rates increasing fastest among teenage girls.

Other lawsuits in recent years have targeted Meta, which owns the social media platforms Facebook and Instagram. Yet critics have pointed out that fast-growing TikTok has the greatest influence over the youngest and most impressionable users.

Most U.S. TikTok users are between the ages of 18 and 29 and more than half of all Americans between ages 13 and 17 are estimated to use the platform, including a disproportionately large share of girls.

As of May, TikTok had 1.04 billion users globally. It is expected to grow to 1.8 billion users by the end of the year.

Several of the lawsuits filed Tuesday singled out the platform’s “beauty filters” — which allow young girls to distort their physical appearance — for potentially contributing to low self-esteem and eating disorders.

According to studies that Ms. James’ office cited, 50% of girls believe they do not look good unless they edit their appearance and 77% reported using the beauty filters to change or hide part of their bodies.

The lawsuits also accused TikTok of using around-the-clock notifications to interrupt young people’s sleep patterns; an “autoplay” feature to constantly stream videos that users cannot disable; temporary “stories” and live content to pressure users to tune in before they disappear; and a “likes” and comment session to hook young people on the platform’s social approval.

Some of the suits also accuse the company of misleading users about a 60-minute screen time limit that it adopted to address previous parental concerns. They note that TikTok lets users enter a passcode to keep watching after their 60 minutes run out, undermining the company’s claim to enforce time limits.

States that joined the District of Columbia, New York and California in filing lawsuits in their jurisdictions on Tuesday include South Carolina, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.

Washington, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb’s complaint accuses the platform of “employing algorithms and manipulative design features” to target the addictive centers of children’s brains with “dopamine-inducing” videos.

TikTok has also faced other legal challenges.

The Republican-led states of Kansas, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Iowa and Arkansas previously sued the company for exposing children to sexual content in their video feeds. Some of those lawsuits failed; others are pending.

The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission also filed a federal lawsuit in the nation’s capital in August. That suit, which is also pending, accuses the company of knowingly collecting and distributing the personal information of children younger than 13 who have quietly signed up for regular TikTok accounts since 2019.

“The Department is deeply concerned that TikTok has continued to collect and retain children’s personal information despite a court order barring such conduct,” said Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer. “With this action, the Department seeks to ensure that TikTok honors its obligation to protect children’s privacy rights and parents’ efforts to protect their children.”

— This article is based in part on wire reports.