In Africa, the laws and frameworks around child sexual exploitation have been largely weak and ineffectual, aggravating the predation continent-wide. According to a study by the African Child Forum in 2019, tourism, marriage, and cybersex were the growing frontiers of child sexual exploitation in Africa.

Uncovering the true scale of digital sexual exploitation of minors remains a complex challenge, even for the Western world, owing to the vastness and ease of exploitation of the internet. From user violations like cyberstalking, sextortion, deepfake misuse, and quishing to systemic abuses like data privacy breaches, censorship, content bias, and data monetisation, the internet’s algorithmic holes have, over time, proven to be fertile ground for the criminally inclined, often with little to no resistance from regulatory bodies. 

However, a new documentary published by BBC on Monday, March 3, alleges that TikTok is complicit in the exploitation of underage African girls. Titled “Liked, Lured, Livestreamed: The Dark World of Digital Brothels,” the investigation was led by BBC journalist Deborah Lakemoli, with interviews featuring three Kenyan women who revealed how they began commercialising sexual livestreams as teenagers, openly advertising and negotiating payments for more explicit content on TikTok before finalising transactions on other messaging platforms. 

Burdened by the impoverishment and the limited economic opportunities gripping the continent’s larger youth demographic, these women began live-streaming sexual content on TikTok as underaged girls and fell victim to predators who wanted more than visual satisfaction.  

The documentary shed light on the currency used in this practice: virtual gifts, which viewers buy with real-world money for commercial use on TikTok but, in this context, serve more hedonistic needs and are ultimately converted into cash by the streamers.

TikTok’s standard rules prohibit solicitation of this sort, and it has previously stated that it has “zero tolerance for exploitation” when BBC initially reported its 70% cut from all live stream transactions on the platform in October 2022.

“TikTok has zero tolerance for exploitation. We enforce strict safety policies, including robust Live content rules, moderation in 70 languages, including Swahili, and we partner with local experts and creators, including our Sub-Saharan Africa Safety Advisory Council, to continually strengthen our approach,” TikTok’s spokesperson had told the BBC in a vague response.

The findings of the recent investigation, however, contradict TikTok’s stance. According to the three subjects interviewed in the documentary, they started livestreaming sexual content on TikTok as teenagers, with some starting as young as nine.

Though accessing TikTok livestreams ought to be restricted to users over 18 years with a minimum of 1,000 followers, the enforcement of this rule is often bypassed by “digital pimps” who host the livestreams. Some of these hosts deploy backup accounts and possess ample knowledge of how to circumvent the platform’s relatively slack content moderation systems while generating enough sexual teasing to pique customers’ interest.

While Kenya seems to be the primary base of these activities, there are similar happenings in Nigeria, where some women are being sexually commercialised. The exact ages of these individuals remain unclear, but many are encouraged by digital pimps with a large following to engage in sexually provocative acts, such as flashing their breasts, in exchange for virtual gifts which can later be exchanged for money or other incentives. Observations of such videos show that they are mostly done using local slang and gestures, which are perceived to evade the platform’s moderation systems.

The challenge of enforcing crime on social media has always been daunting. According to two anonymous content moderators from TikTok’s contracted workforce of 40,000, “about 80% of livestreams flagged in content moderators’ feeds were sexual or advertising sexual services, and TikTok is aware of the scale of the issue,” per BBC.

These claims further suggest that the world’s fastest-growing social network is not eager to eradicate the alleged misconduct, as the more people give gifts on livestreams, the more revenue the platform generates. 

Meanwhile, TikTok is still in an ongoing lawsuit with the US state of Utah which alleges that despite conducting internal investigations into child exploitation in 2022, the network largely ignored the issue because it was profiting significantly from these practices.