Child abuse scandal on TikTok: Thousands of videos and suspicious accounts detected

Maldita.es, a Spain-based counter-disinformation and investigative journalism organization, published a comprehensive research revealing that images of child sexual abuse are widely shared on the social media platform TikTok.

In the research, 1,183 videos clearly showing the sexual abuse of children, a total of 48 million views, and more than 26 thousand suspicious user accounts commenting or sharing these contents were identified.

While evaluating the findings of the research, Maldita.es Director Clara Jiménez Cruz said, "It is not even possible to compare TikTok with other platforms when it comes to sexual abuse of children."

HARASSMENT OF YOUNG GIRLS ON LIVE BROADCAST

El País' research revealed that the problem on TikTok is not limited to illegal video sharing.

In the live broadcasts reviewed by the newspaper, it was seen that young girls from different regions of Spain were talking to the camera, and some broadcasts were made directly from school classrooms.

While only a few dozen people watched some of these broadcasts, there were statements of sexual harassment and abuse in the comment areas.

It was stated that some young users also shared their Instagram accounts upon requests from the audience.

According to TikTok's official rules, you must be at least 18 years old to start a live broadcast. The platform also imposes an age limit for sending and purchasing virtual gifts during live broadcasts. However, according to El País' observations, some of the users posting are under 18 years old.

The newspaper reported that virtual gifts sent during live broadcasts are sometimes associated with sexual requests, and TikTok receives a commission from these gifts.

ABUSE CRIMINAL IS ON TIKTOK

One of the most striking findings of the research was the online community created around a person who was convicted and imprisoned in the USA for sexual assault against babies.

Maldita.es identified a user community operating under the name "Team 94" with approximately 2 thousand followers.

According to the research, the community chose a number used by the convict as its symbol.

It was stated that users in this network use the platform to share images of child abuse, search for similar content and connect with each other.

According to Maldita.es, this example reveals that TikTok can function not only as a platform where illegal content is published, but also as a tool used by child exploitation networks to find and communicate with new members.

ONLY 5 OUT OF 50 VIDEOS WERE REMOVED

As part of the investigation, Maldita.es reported 50 videos containing sexual abuse of children through TikTok's official complaint mechanism.

Additionally, the platform only completely removed 5 of the reported contents. This number corresponds to 10 percent of the complained videos.

TikTok blocked access to 13 videos only from Spain.

Even more striking, three days after the complaint, 40 percent of the accounts that posted the videos were still active.

Researchers argue that TikTok's content control mechanisms are insufficient to prevent child sexual abuse.

"THEY HAVE KNOWN THE PROBLEM FOR YEARS..."

The research also points out that TikTok has long been aware of problems with child abuse content.

In internal documents revealed in 2022 as part of a lawsuit filed in the USA, it was understood that TikTok executives acknowledged the problem of child abuse on the platform.

Maldita.es had previously published two separate studies on the sexual exploitation of children on TikTok.

In its latest study, the organization described the platform as "the home of child abusers".

After the research, Spanish newspaper El País also tested how easy it was to find some content on the platform.

According to the newspaper, some search phrases used to access content related to child abuse yielded results on TikTok, while the same phrases were met with warning messages on Instagram.