TikTok Counts Views. Latin America Counts the Cost of Child Sexual Abuse

In three hours, reporters found 100 more posts showing child sexual abuse on TikTok. A Mexican student spent nearly three years pursuing her complaint. Brazil secured changes to the app, while Panama identified a survivor after more than a decade.

What Mexico Could Still See

On November 10, some TikTok users in Spain saw a warning where images of abuse had appeared the day before. TikTok had restricted two searches. In Mexico, reporters could still see dozens of abusive posts. In an earlier test, the Spanish investigative newsroom Maldita flagged 50 videos. TikTok initially removed five and blocked another 13 only in Spain. For a parent asking whether a recording of their child was gone, the answer could depend on where they lived.

Over 35 days, Maldita documented 1,183 videos and images of child sexual abuse with more than 48 million views. It flagged more than 20,000 accounts apparently seeking or circulating the material, including 7,725 profiles posting in Spanish. One person can account for many views. A Spanish comment could come from Madrid, Miami, or Medellín. A prosecutor still has to establish which country can investigate and which police department can reach the child.

Maldita counted 780 accounts soliciting buyers. It documented 91 livestreams involving minors in 17 countries. Some children were broadcasting from school during recess. Viewers offered money for children to do things on camera, and some requests were sexual. TikTok reserves virtual gifts for adults. Where money changed hands through the app, prosecutors may be able to identify who paid and who collected.

TikTok said it prohibits the material and requested Maldita’s full findings to help locate it. The newsroom said TikTok removed much of what it had flagged, yet reporters found another 100 posts in three hours on Tuesday. The app itself recommended some of them. Spain’s youth ministry asked prosecutors to investigate and the data protection agency to temporarily suspend the service.

The Complaints That Never Arrive

Months earlier, a young Mexican woman measured the time she spent pursuing her complaint in school terms. Half of high school went by, then her entire first year of college. “I started missing school because I had to keep going to the prosecutor’s office,” she told researchers studying sexual abuse involving technology. The proceedings lasted two years and eight months.

Household surveys released this year by UNICEF, ECPAT International and Interpol asked internet users ages 12 to 17 about the preceding year. In Mexico, 13% reported some form of sexual abuse or exploitation involving technology. The figure was 19% in Brazil, 21% in Colombia, and 23% in the Dominican Republic. The questions covered experiences across platforms, including unwanted sexual images and pressure to send pictures. Mexico’s lower percentage still represented an estimated 1.6 million adolescents.

In the Dominican Republic, the young person knew the perpetrator in 68% of cases. Fewer than 1% reached the authorities. A warning about strangers offers little to someone afraid of a relative or a boyfriend.

In Colombia, 29% of rural respondents experienced abuse, compared with 17% of their urban peers. None of the affected adolescents surveyed formally reported it. A governor who assigns counselors according to police complaints could overlook the communities where the survey found the greatest need. In places where hardly anyone reports abuse, an increase in complaints could mean more children trust the people answering them.

Brazil’s Fine and Panama’s Cold Case

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum signed an October 14 decree requiring platforms to remove prohibited material immediately and preserve digital evidence for at least 90 business days after taking down an account or post. Companies must give investigators a contact they can reach around the clock—their 30-day deadline to document what they have done falls this week. Sheinbaum’s government can ask TikTok which posts it removed for Mexican users and whether it kept records that could identify who posted them.

In August, Brazil’s data protection agency fined TikTok’s parent, ByteDance, 153.7 million reais over its handling of minors’ personal data. ByteDance agreed to turn off livestreams and direct messages for people browsing without an account. Separately, a digital child protection law signed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took effect in March. Platforms with more than a million registered minors in Brazil must now publish reports in Portuguese twice a year, including how many complaints they received.

In Panama, investigators had images of an abuse victim who had gone unidentified in Interpol’s files for more than a decade. A team of Latin American and Caribbean specialists helped identify the person. Panamanian authorities arranged protection and support for the survivor. The investigation also identified a second victim. In a separate case disclosed in October, Colombian police located a five-year-old whose images dated back to age one. A parent was arrested on suspicion of making and selling the recordings.

Maldita also found a group of more than 2,000 users seeking material depicting babies. Checking the age of someone opening an account offers little protection to a child too young to hold the phone. The surveys give presidents a baseline for measuring whether abuse declines. Investigators can already count how many children they reached. For the next Mexican student who comes forward, progress might mean a call from the prosecutor with news of her case instead of another summons that takes her out of class.