A Texas judge has ruled that TikTok violated the state's consumer protection laws by misleading users about its ability to filter content for underage users and the effectiveness of its "Restricted Mode" settings. The legal action was launched by the state of Texas in January 2025, claiming that TikTok falsely advertised its platform as safe for younger audiences. According to the ruling by Judge Cory Liu, state prosecutors proved that while TikTok claimed it would remove content that violated its Community Guidelines, the company internally labeled some rule-breaking posts as "hard to find" instead of "do not allow," allowing such content to stay online. Judge Liu concluded that this practice violated Texas's consumer protection laws. The judge also found that Texas successfully demonstrated that TikTok's "Restricted Mode" did not function as advertised, leaving underage users exposed to inappropriate content that the company claimed would be blocked. Following the ruling, the office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that the lawsuit will now proceed to trial, where financial penalties and other court remedies will be determined. Officials from Paxton’s office expect to finalize the trial date within the coming month. This decision comes amid growing legal pressure on major digital platforms over concerns about youth safety. In August 2025, TikTok reached an agreement to resolve three separate lawsuits brought by minors who claimed the company intentionally designed its platform to be addictive, negatively affecting their mental health. Around the same time, Meta Platforms (parent company of Facebook and Instagram) agreed to pay up to $18 billion to settle similar claims across the United States. Under Meta's decade-long agreement with nearly every U.S. state, the tech giant will distribute up to $18 billion and implement strict new limits on how teenagers interact with its platforms. This deal resolved a major federal court case over accusations that Meta had hidden safety risks and harmed young users. Before the resolution, four participating states—California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey—had sought nearly $200 billion in potential civil penalties. Regarding TikTok’s legal settlements, plaintiff attorney Joseph VanZandt confirmed that the terms of the three youth addiction cases remain confidential until formal written contracts are finalized. These individual legal battles represent only a small part of the thousands of claims currently being handled in the California court system. While TikTok has settled specific test cases, ongoing lawsuits against Meta, Google’s YouTube, and Snap Inc’s Snapchat are moving toward a trial in October. The three cases TikTok settled involved minor plaintiffs identified only by their initials and were selected from approximately 3,300 consolidated lawsuits managed by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl, which concern allegations of social media addiction and harm to youth. The technology companies involved have consistently denied the allegations, asserting that they use extensive safeguards and tools to protect adolescent users on their platforms.