The Government asks the Prosecutor's Office to study the suspension of TikTok in Spain for "violation of children's rights" after detecting child sexual abuse

The Ministry of Youth and Children, headed by Sira Rego, has sent a letter to the State Attorney General's Office to act on the information published by Maldita.es about alleged cases of child sexual abuse on the TikTok platform and "the lack of effective mechanisms on the social network to prevent the dissemination of said material."

In the letter, the Ministry transfers the information to the Prosecutor's Office so that, "in the exercise of its powers, it adopts the necessary measures to guarantee the comprehensive protection of children and adolescents who may be affected."

In addition, the Ministry raises "the possibility of paralyzing the platform's services in Spain, if this is considered appropriate," according to sources from the Rego team.

In Spain, a social network has never been closed, but there is a precedent in Europe: in 2021, the Italian Data Protection Authority ordered a temporary block of TikTok after the tragic death of a 10-year-old girl who participated in a viral challenge. After the block, TikTok agreed with the Italian regulator to block users who could not verify that they were at least 13 years old and require new age verification before allowing access to accounts.

For the Ministry, the events are "extremely serious and require an immediate and coordinated response from all the competent administrations, both at the national and European levels."

Minister Sira Rego has asked the platform's representatives in Spain for an "urgent" meeting to learn about TikTok's explanations, as well as the measures adopted and the immediate actions planned to guarantee the protection of children and adolescents on its platform.

In addition, they "highlight serious deficiencies in the content detection and moderation mechanisms, as well as in the role of TikTok's recommendation systems in its dissemination." In the opinion of the Ministry, "this could constitute a violation of children's rights by the platform itself."

The Maldita.es investigation is the third carried out by this medium on TikTok's alleged "inaction" regarding child sexual abuse material. It has detected more than a thousand videos of child sexual abuse on TikTok, with more than 48 million views, and more than 20,000 profiles of potential pedophiles who exchange or sell this type of material, of which more than 7,000 operate in Spanish.

It has also located 780 accounts that use the platform to attract buyers of child sexual abuse material, 91 live broadcasts of minors in 17 countries in which users request actions, sometimes sexual, in exchange for money, and a community of more than 2,000 members that searches for baby content.