A Texas district judge ruled on September 10 that TikTok violated the state’s consumer protection law by misleading users about how it moderated content for minors, marking the first time a state has secured a liability finding against the platform over child-safety claims.

Judge Cory Liu of the 250th District Court in Travis County granted the State of Texas partial summary judgment in a case brought by Attorney General Ken Paxton, finding TikTok liable on two grounds under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

The first concerns TikTok’s Community Guidelines. The state argued TikTok claimed it would remove content depicting drug use, gambling, minors in a sexually suggestive manner, or graphic wounds and injuries. According to the ruling, TikTok’s internal moderation policies instead classified such content as “hard to find” rather than “do not allow,” permitting it to remain accessible on the platform. Liu found the state had met its summary judgment burden on this claim.

The second concerns TikTok’s “Restricted Mode,” a feature the company marketed as limiting the appearance of content such as profanity, sexually suggestive material, realistic violence, weapons, and drug references for users who enabled it. The ruling states that TikTok employees internally recognized for years that Restricted Mode did not function as advertised and exposed users to a high volume of content the company said would be filtered out. Liu ruled the state had established a violation here as well.

Paxton sued TikTok in January 2025 over claims it deceptively marketed its app as safe for minors, after previously suing the company for allegedly violating the state’s SCOPE Act by mishandling minors’ personal data. “TikTok sacrificed the safety and innocence of children for engagement and numbers, and now they are being held accountable,” Paxton said in a press release. “I will continue to go after TikTok and every social media company that exposes children to predators, inappropriate content, addictive features, or any other dangerous aspect of their platforms.”

The case now proceeds to trial, where relief or penalties will be determined. Paxton’s office said the trial is expected to be scheduled for next month.

The ruling lands in the middle of a broader reckoning over platform child-safety practices. TikTok agreed in August to settle three federal lawsuits alleging its platform was designed to be addictive to teenagers. That same month, Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion to resolve child-safety claims from a 29-state coalition, a settlement that requires the company to add daily time limits, nighttime access blocks, and stronger age-verification tools. Roughly $5.3 billion of that Meta settlement is contingent on TikTok and YouTube adopting comparable safeguards and matching Meta’s contribution. Meta has separately published an open letter urging both platforms to join it in adopting teen-safety measures, including a two-hour daily time limit and default nighttime shutoffs.

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