Attorney General Tong Announces Investigation Into "Predator's Paradise" Kik Messenger App

09/08/2026

(Hartford, CT) – Attorney General William Tong today announced an investigation into MediaLab.AI Inc. (“MediaLab”) over allegations of lax age assurance practices and content moderation on its messaging app Kik that have enabled what child safety advocates deem a “predator’s paradise.”

“Kik is a parent’s worst nightmare—a cesspool of sexual abuse, exploitation and bullying, with no meaningful age verification or barriers or protections. Our investigation demands detailed answers from MediaLab regarding their unacceptable record on child safety and privacy. We just forced Meta to overhaul its platform and pay $17.1 billion for hurting our kids, and we’ve put TikTok, YouTube and Snap on notice. Our investigation into Roblox is active and ongoing. One by one, we are taking on these toxic apps and we are going to use the full weight of our law enforcement authority to hold Big Tech accountable and protect our kids online,” said Attorney General Tong.

Kik, owned by MediaLab, is a mobile messaging app that allows users to send text messages, photos, videos, and join public or private chats. Since its release in 2010, Kik has been a popular messaging app for minors. According to one analysis, more than one-third of American teens use Kik today, down from 40 percent reported by Kik in 2016.

Kik’s popularity with youth was not accidental. Historically, Kik did not require users to authenticate their identity with an email or telephone number, enabling minors to easily create an account and instantly begin using the app. Today, Kik uses no technological tooling to monitor for underage users, relies on reactive review of reported or manually discovered content, and has conducted no audits or reviews of the effectiveness of its age determination processes.

This frictionless access to account creation and anonymity has exposed minors to serious documented online and offline harms.

In its 2025 annual report analyzing youth safety messaging trends across dozens of apps and social media platforms, parental monitoring app Bark listed Kik as the second worst app for reports of extreme sexual content and the third worst app for severe bullying. The National Center on Child Exploitation (“NCOSE”) has dubbed Kik a “predator’s paradise,” listing it on its “Dirty Dozen” for “rampant child sexual exploitation, fueled by the app’s dangerous design and inadequate safety measures. When NCOSE created a test account with the username “Im12BeNice,” the group reported a flood of sexual solicitations within seconds. Their report lists multiple recent criminal prosecutions related to the sharing of child sexual abuse material and solicitation of minors for sex acts on Kik.

Despite these harms, MediaLab has a history of advertising the Kik App to minors. Although MediaLab claims that as of September 2023 it limited new users of the Kik App to 18+, there is no indication that MediaLab sought to remove younger users from the application at that time. As recently as September 2024, MediaLab was still advertising on the Kik website that the application was appropriate for children over the age of 13 and, as recently as February 8, 2025, the Google Play store listed Kik as an application with a “Teen” rating. Moreover, MediaLab did not update its Terms of Service until February 5, 2025 to restrict minors from its platform and did not add an age restriction to its privacy notice until June 2025. MediaLab also did not update its website until after February 2026 to remove its description of Kik as an application for “young adults.”

The Office of the Attorney General first issued a notice of violation under the Connecticut Data Privacy Act (CTDPA) to MediaLab in July 2025, noting numerous deficiencies in Kik’s privacy notices and consumer rights mechanisms. Those included the processing of sensitive data without first obtaining proper consent, including data related to race or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, health, sex life or sexual orientation, genetic data, biometric data, and precise geolocation data, among other violations.

To date, the company has only partially addressed those privacy deficiencies despite repeated inquiries. The company’s responses have further raised additional concerns regarding the safety of minors on the app. The Office of the Attorney General has now sent a new civil investigative demand seeking comprehensive information and records related to MediaLab’s data processing, content moderation and age assurance practices that may constitute unfair or deceptive acts or practices in violation of the CTDPA and Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act.

Today’s investigation is the latest in a series of measures led by Attorney General Tong to protect Connecticut kids online, including ongoing investigations into online gaming and chat platform Roblox, TikTok and other confidential active matters. On August 26, Attorney General Tong announced a landmark $17.1 billion multistate settlement with Meta Platforms, Inc. that will enforce sweeping new safety reforms to protect American children on Instagram and Facebook. The agreement resolves claims by 51 attorneys general that the company designed Instagram with addictive features, knowingly exposed young users to serious mental harms, and intentionally misled the public about the safety of its platforms, among other things. Connecticut will receive up to $266.1 million, with at least half of all funds directed to remediate youth harms from social media, including but not limited to support for mental health and crisis intervention, after school and summer school programming, and implementation of phone-free school zones. This is the largest state settlement with a single defendant in history.

Assistant Attorneys General Jordan Levin, Laura Martella, Rebecca Borné, and Tess Schneider, Deputy Associate Attorney General Michele Lucan, Chief of the Privacy Section and Michael Wertheimer, Chief of the Consumer Protection Section are assisting Attorney General Tong in this matter.

Twitter: @AGWilliamTong

Facebook: CT Attorney General

Media Contact:

Elizabeth Benton
elizabeth.benton@ct.gov

Consumer Inquiries:

860-808-5318
attorney.general@ct.gov

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