Digital promoting giant AppLovin has allegedly been serving sexually specific and violent advertisements in video games performed by youngsters – all while bypassing parental controls meant to defend them, according to allegations in a bombshell lawsuit filed on Monday.
Filed in California state court, the lawsuit alleges that AppLovin – a $100 billion company that helps software program builders promote advertisements and monetize their apps – has been “exposing children to graphic depictions of sex, violence, and sexual assault delivered directly to their mobile devices through games designed for and rated as safe for children.”
Alarming screenshots included the lawsuit show a selection of scantily-clad cartoon ladies in sexually suggestive conditions including bondage, as effectively as advertisements for alcohol, vaping gadgets and hashish gummies that appeared in video games that were rated “E for everyone” on Google’s Play Store.
AppLovin — which has a market cap of roughly $100 billion — allegedly been serving sexually specific and violent advertisements in video games performed by youngsters. Mojahid Mottakin – stock.adobe.com
“While parents do everything they can to protect their kids playing mobile games from harmful content, AppLovin strips away those digital safeguards and steers obscene advertisements to children anyway,” according to the lawsuit filed by San Diego County officers.
AppLovin representatives did not reply to a request for remark.
San Diego County has accused AppLovin of violations under California’s False Advertising Law and Unfair Competition Law.
Its attorneys are in search of injunctive reduction as effectively as unspecific restitution and civil penalties.
AppLovin’s inner insurance policies state that the company does not “knowingly collect personal information from children or serve advertisements to children,” according to its web site.
The lawsuit accused AppLovin of amassing huge troves of youngsters’ knowledge through a method called “fingerprinting” to goal kids. The data gathered was allegedly “precise enough to pinpoint where kids live, where they study, and whether they are sleeping.”
“AppLovin has turned child-friendly mobile games into a surveillance platform that tracks childrens and adults alike, monetizes their personal information, and deploys a deceptive user interface to mislead and coerce users into generating revenue for the company,” the lawsuit says.
San Diego County said the inappropriate advertisements were served despite parental controls. Obtained by NY Post
The Silicon Valley company, which was once in the working to buy TikTok, has more and more confronted scrutiny over its knowledge practices since last 12 months.
San Diego’s lawsuit cites investigations compiled by short-seller corporations Fuzzy Panda, Culper Research and Muddy Waters, which “collectively alleged that the company collected data from children and showed obscene ads in games played by minors.”
In October 2025, The Post reported that state regulators, including workers from the attorneys normal from Delaware, Oregon and Connecticut, had reached out to a number of short sellers, seemingly as half of a preliminary investigation into AppLovin.
The present standing of those probes could not immediately be discovered.
San Diego County filed its lawsuit against AppLovin on Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. Obtained by NY Post
Elsewhere, the Securities and Exchange Commission launched an investigation into AppLovin’s promoting practices last.
However, the company’s CFO Mat Stumpf said last August that the SEC’s investigation had closed without any enforcement motion.
AppLovin has strenuously denied any wrongdoing – with its CEO Adam Foroughi going as far as to write a weblog post disputing the short sellers’ allegations in February 2025.
“It’s disappointing that a few nefarious short-sellers are making false and misleading claims aimed at undermining our success, and driving down our stock price for their own financial gain, rather than acknowledging the sophisticated AI models our team has built to enhance advertising for our partners,” Foroughi said at the time.
Many screenshots depicting inappropriate advertisements were included in San Diego County’s lawsuit. Obtained by NY Post
The new lawsuit coincided with the launch of San Diego County’s new Consumer Fairness and Public Protection Unit, which also announced lawsuits concentrating on Roblox and Polymarket over obvious violations.
“People should be able to trust the products they buy, the apps their kids use and the companies they deal with,” San Diego County Boar Chair Terra Lawson-Remer said in a assertion.
“Families are already stretched thin by the cost of living. They should not also have to pay the price when companies mislead them, misuse their information or put their kids at risk,” Lawson-Remer added.
