TikTok Accused Of Child-Related Livestream Sex Shows

TikTok is reportedly making money off sexual live streams by Kenyan teenagers as young as 15.

According to the BBC, some Kenyan women confessed that they started this practice when they were young.

They went on to say that they publicly promoted and negotiated payment for more explicit content on TikTok that would be distributed through other messaging apps.

Despite TikTok’s ban on solicitation, moderators told the BBC that the firm knows it happens and that they keep about 70% of all livestream sales.

This 70% cut is taken from the gifts in the form of emojis that can be exchanged for money given to content creators as a sign of appreciation during livestream.

TikTok, which is said to have protection for its users, has policies that prohibit any form of sexually related content on the app.

However, research conducted in Kenya indicates that these regulations are being violated as women promote sexual services on other platforms.

These are done by them using coded sexual terminology and engaging in suggestive dancing and twerking during livestreams.

An organization known as ChildFund Kenya claims that child exploitation is rampant in Kenya and that the app is also used in this case.

They state that accounts with a sizable following serve as virtual pimps for desperate adolescent girls by conducting live-streamed sex performances while evading content reviewers.

It also points out how this is made worse by the country’s youthful population and extensive internet use.

In comparison to Western nations, the organization also noted that online moderation is lacking throughout the African continent.

TikTok Conscious of Child Exploitation in Its Livestream

The Utah Department of Commerce’s Division of Consumer Protection filed a complaint in state court against TikTok in June 2024 after the first lawsuit in October 2023, where the state claimed that the video-sharing app falsely represents the app’s safety.

This second lawsuit claims that TikTok Inc. has consciously allowed young people to be sexually exploited on the TikTok platform in exchange for money.

According to the lawsuit, adult users can provide underage users “TikTok cash” in exchange for sexual solicitation and exploitation.

This is said to be done through the TikTok app’s live broadcasting feature, “TikTok LIVE,” and the corporation keeps a portion (70%) of each transaction.

It also claims that TikTok LIVE has enabled adults to pay underage users to strip, pose, and dance provocatively in exchange for TikTok gifts that can be exchanged for actual money.

TikTok has continuously denied these claims, as they state that they have policies that prohibit any form of sexually related content.

A watchdog in the UK began what it has described as a “major investigation” into TikTok’s handling of children’s personal data on Monday, March 3.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) will examine how the social media platform uses the data of 13 to 17-year-olds to suggest further content to them.