Following an investigation by Spanish nonprofit organization Maldita.es, the Ministry of Youth and Children in Spain has called for an urgent meeting with TikTok leadership to address concerns over child sexual abuse content on the platform. The independent probe uncovered more than 1,000 videos of this nature, amassing a total of 48 million views within the span of just two months. Maldita.es further reported discovering over 20,000 suspected paedophile profiles during their monitoring period in September and October, with around 7,000 based in Spain.
The investigation, titled "TikTok: Home to Predators," revealed that TikTok's algorithm may be promoting content by minors and profiting from their abuse. Clara Jimenez Cruz, Maldita.es cofounder and chief executive, stated that such content is not hard to find on the platform. In one instance, a 10-year-old girl in Spain was recommended for a livestream where she received suggestive comments from an adult male.
The Spanish Ministry of Youth and Children has raised the possibility of suspending TikTok, which is owned by Chinese parent company ByteDance. The ministry has also demanded explanations from TikTok and requested that prosecutors take action over alleged child sexual abuse cases on the platform. Maldita.es identified numerous accounts posting explicit content, using the network to attract buyers, and requesting exchanges of sexual images in comments.
According to Maldita.es, content deemed appropriate for the dark web can be found on TikTok. When their findings were published on Monday, TikTok had removed only a tenth of the flagged content and blocked only a quarter of illegal posts in Spain. TikTok is currently facing numerous lawsuits and investigations over allegations that it has failed to protect minors, which it has denied. The European Union recently warned TikTok to modify the "harmful" design of its personalized "For You" feed or face potential large fines under the bloc's digital content rules.