Liked, Lured, Livestreamed: The Dark World of Digital Brothels - BBC Africa Eye Documentary
On TikTok live streams, girls as young as 15 are being exploited into selling sexual content. #BBCAfricaEye investigates to find out who is profiting.
Click here to subscribe to our channel 👉🏽 http://bit.ly/subscribetoafrica
With its many dancing challenges and comedy sketches, it’s no surprise TikTok is popular with young Kenyans. The app is also a way for them to make money through its gifting service. But there’s a darker side, where young women – including teenage girls as young as 15 – are selling sexual content on live streams, with some being recruited and exploited by “digital pimps”.
Africa Eye's Debula Kemoli investigates.
A spokesperson for TikTok told the BBC it has zero tolerance for exploitation, enforces strict safety policies and has robust live content rules and moderation in place for 70 languages, including Swahili.
00:00 Liked, Lured, Livestreamed: The Dark World of Digital Brothels
01:24 The world's fastest growing platform
02:08 Rising unemployment, more TikTok influencers
04:06 'Midnight TikTok'
05:58 Underage girls groomed by 'digital pimps'
08:55 A child safeguarding expert's view
09:41 'He laughed and said I can't report him'
12:18 'The easiest place to prey on children'
14:06 Support group: Educating girl survivors
15:40 'I feel haunted'
17:08 How can Kenyan children be protected?
18:33 TikTok content moderator speaks to the BBC
***
Africa Eye brings you original, investigative journalism revealing secrets and rooting out injustice in the world’s most complex and exciting continent. Nothing stays hidden forever.
🎞️ Check out all Africa Eye investigations here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLajyiGz4JeyO2qgCvioQO-BzP1XCajJqt
🎧 Listen to The Documentary podcast on this investigation "TikTok and the digital pimps" here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct7y7s
📰 Read about this investigation here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cedl8eyy4pjo
🎥 Watch this film in SWAHILI here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6VaUs4feG0 and in FRENCH here: https://youtu.be/WSMQHn4WVq8
***
Subscribe: http://bit.ly/subscribetoafrica
Website: https://www.bbc.com/africa
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bbcnewsafrica/
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/bbcafrica/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bbcafrica/
#TikTok #Documentary #Kenya #KenyaDocumentary #TikTokLive #InvestigativeJournalism #Investigations #BBCAfrica
30 Apr 2025
- Kenya has been facing increased cases of suicide.
30 Apr 2025
- He joins the long list of Raila's allies that have benefitted in the broad-based govt.
30 Apr 2025
- The CS was forced to respond to concerns by sections of law enforcers.
30 Apr 2025
- KMPDU has written to the University of Nairobi (UoN), demanding urgent measures to protect the welfare of medical registrars, who it says are being overworked and unfairly treated.
30 Apr 2025
- Two lovers have been arraigned in court in connection with the brutal murder and lynching of a 26-year-old woman in Likoni, Mombasa County.
30 Apr 2025
- Prof. Makau Mutua has landed a new job in the Kenya Kwanza administration, becoming the latest beneficiary of the broad-based government agreement between President William Ruto and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
30 Apr 2025
- Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has directed that chiefs from five counties grappling with frequent livestock raids be registered and armed for self-defense.
30 Apr 2025
- A senior administrator in Gatundu South sub-county has died by suicide hours after going into hiding over allegations of sexually assaulting two underage boys on April 20, 2025.
30 Apr 2025
- Two suspects, a Kenyan and Somali national, were on Wednesday arraigned at the Makadara Law Courts for alleged involvement in human trafficking.
30 Apr 2025
- Just a month after ODM experienced violent incidents during grassroots elections in three Nyanza counties, resulting in several injuries and one fatality, the party’s Executive Director Oduor Ong’wen has fired a stern warning to perpetrators of the…
30 Apr 2025
- Detectives in Nairobi have arrested 11 suspects who defrauded a victim of Ksh.70.6 million (USD 546,000) in a fraudulent gold scheme.
30 Apr 2025
- Prof Mutua joins President Ruto's growing sea of advisers.
30 Apr 2025
- Kenya has been facing increased cases of suicide.