Since the dawn of the Internet, adults have been luring minors into inappropriate relationships. However, TikTok, the most downloaded social network in recent years, is fast becoming the biggest danger zone, according to agencies and organizations that monitor and expose child exploitation.

TikTok first appeared in the online world in 2017. In 2022, users aged 4 to 18 years they passed the average 107 minutes a day on the platform, according to Qustodio, an online security company. Snapchat was next most popular among the same age group with an average watch time of 72 minutes, while YouTube was third with 67 minutes.

TikTok, with millions of short videos of all kinds, is a magnet for kids and teens who tend to spend most of their daily time on social media in this medium. Every month, the platform hosts billions of videos of people dancing, singing or talking about their personal lives.

What worries those watching the phenomenon, however, is that TikTok’s algorithm is designed to learn what content each user likes and then “combine” it with similar personalized content. This is one of the reasons why it is so addictive for young people and much easier for pedophiles.

“The majority of the target audience for these children are adult males showing sexual interest in minors,” said John Rose, a 38-year-old police veteran who leads an Interpol sex offenders team.

“I fell in love with a 14 year old girl”

It is noted that TikTok is intended for users over the age of 13, but much younger children also have access to the platform, although with restrictions on some functions – for example, the inability to share or comment on a video and send a message to another user – while the system blocks any user who has declared about the age of 16, from the use of direct personal messages.

However, like many other apps, there isn’t really a tool to prevent users from giving a false date of birth when registering.

A typical case is that of a 14-year-old girl from Texas who communicated through a private messaging service with an adult male, although this was forbidden to people of her age. Grady Moffett was finally arrested last March on suspicion of sexually abusing a minor. “I fell in love with her,” he said from the Fort Worth County Jail.

The minor’s family reported that the child was emotionally vulnerable and spent a lot of time online without supervision, with the mother describing the situation as “every parent’s nightmare“.

And the case of Moffat she’s not the only oneCertainly.

In 2021, a mother discovered that her 8-year-old daughter was interacting with a 22-year-old man she met on TikTok, who introduced himself as a 13-year-old. During his confession, Christian Sandoval admitted to having seen a video of a minor and commented on how cute she is. When they exchanged phones via TikTok, he sent her photos of his genitals and showed her how to make a video of her masturbating naked and how to send it to him. In April, he pleaded guilty to child pornography and was sentenced to more than 19 years in prison.

In another case, a 36-year-old California resident, posing as a 13-year-old, entered into pornographic conversations with at least 21 minorsLos Angeles County Sheriff’s Office. In one case, James Anthony Gonzalez found out the address of a 9-year-old girl and showed up at her doorstep pretending to be a food delivery boy. The girl’s mother called the police, and in January 2020 he was sentenced to 11 years in prison for possession of child pornography and indecent acts against a child.

“Sa Showcase”

Like other popular social networks, TikTok users have the option to restrict their posts to family and friends. Other teens choose to make their posts completely public in order to collect “likes” and use popular features, like the one that allows them to post a video next to a video of a complete stranger.

In fact, thanks to the project’s success, the platform’s competitors are trying to copy its short-video format, raising concerns among parents and authorities about the dangers of content flow and the ease of targeting children.

According to former FBI agent Jeffrey Reineck, these videos provide criminals with personal details of their victims, such as their voice, appearance, and possibly even where they live.

“You have little kids dancing and showing their lives all over TikTok. It’s kind of a showcase for those who want to take advantage of them,” says Joseph Scaramucci, a police investigator in Waco, Texas, and volunteer for the Department of Homeland Security Task Force.

With such an uncontrolled flow of content on the platform, child exploitation experts have legitimate concerns about whether TikTok can effectively monitor the flow for inappropriate behavior.

TikTok CEO before Congress

TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, said it is taking steps to protect young users and is constantly working to improve them.

A spokesperson for the company said the platform uses technology to control posts, captions and comments, and in case of contentious or disturbing content, it is assessed by the authorities. However, he declined to say how many people use these management tools.

The platform’s CEO, Show Zi Chu, agreed to testify before Congress in March on cases where minors were exposed to dangerous sexual content and whether user data is being transferred in China, among other things.

^{Source: Wall Street Journal}