Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway announced on October 14, 2026, that her office has initiated a formal investigation into TikTok, Inc., “to determine whether the company has deceived families, exploited young users, or put children at risk through its platform’s design and operation.”
The Missouri AG’s office issued a civil investigative demand requiring TikTok to answer questions about how the platform “selects and promotes content for children,” and to explain how the platform “evaluates watch time, reactions, and other signals in ways that may push inappropriate or harmful content to young users.”
The investigation concentrates on TikTok’s collection of data from children under 13, minors under 18, and young adults under 24. The office is “demanding information on the company’s internal methods for determining a user’s age, the rules and safeguards TikTok claims to apply to its younger audience, and the actual enforcement of those policies. TikTok must also produce its internal research into how children engage with the platform, including any studies on youth mental health, problematic use, and exposure to harmful material.”
The Missouri AG is following in the footsteps of numerous other AGs investigating or suing TikTok for various allegations of harm to children and youth.