AppLovin sued over allegedly serving adult ads in children’s games

San Diego County is taking legal action against mobile adtech company AppLovin, claiming it served children ads for dating services, alcohol, vaping and sexual content in games played on devices with parental controls switched on.

According to Bloomberg, the complaint, filed at San Diego Superior Court, accuses AppLovin of getting around the tracking limits Apple and Google offer in order to target kids with ads without parental consent.

The county also claims AppLovin collected sensitive information from children’s devices even where parents had opted out, detailed enough to show where kids live and go to school, and whether they are asleep.

Screenshots in the filing show an ad for a sexualised AI chatbot app in a physics-based puzzle game on an Android device set up as a six-year-old’s, and cannabis gummies promoted on a device with the same Google controls.

The suit also alleges ads depicting sex acts, including bondage, appeared in apps labelled as suitable for children.

The county says AppLovin “disregards child safety tools to harvest children’s sensitive personal information” and uses it to power its AI advertising system.

AppLovin didn’t immediately respond to Bloomberg’s request for comment. Its policies ban collecting data from children or using its technology to target them with ads.

The lawsuit is one of three filed on Monday by the county’s newly created Consumer Fairness and Public Protection Unit, which officials say was formed because federal consumer protection enforcement has been fading. One of the others targets Roblox over claims it doesn’t do enough to stop adults posing as children and contacting young players.

AppLovin previously faced an SEC investigation into its data collection practices, which began last year. AppLovin chief financial officer Matt Stumpf has since said on an earnings call in August that the regulator had closed it without recommending enforcement action.