The Issue of Child Grooming on TikTok and Other Social Media

With TikTok the age restriction is also thirteen years of age. However, in relation to this all forms of social media have a minimum age requirement if it is discovered an individual(s) has set up a social media account while underage it can be deleted as social media accounts do no ask the individual(s) to verify the dates of birth the individual(s). Therefore, it is exceptionally easy to set up another social media profile with a fake date of birth, a fake profile photo as well as a fake name therefore making it far too easy for the predator(s) to set up a fake profile through social media platform and make contact with their victim(s).  TikTok was also hit in 2018 with a $5.7 million fine which is £4.3 million in British pounds in the United States of America. The company was fined because it was discovered that the app had collected personal information of children under thirteen years of age who has being using the app. Furthermore, it was also discovered how easy it is for individuals to create a TikTok account despite the age restrictions and the term of use. Moreover, in America it is now a requirement for users to send the company a form of identification when they are signing up to become a member. However, it is not going to be a requirement in the UK to send in identification.

It has been reported that children as young as eight years old has been targeted by online groomers through TikTok. This social media platform has been branded a ‘’magnet for paedophiles’’ by parents and campaigners. one young girl who was ten at the time was groomed online through TikTok videos after three days on the social media platform the young persons mum got a visit from the Police in the United Kingdom. The Police were alerted after a paedophile hunter from Canada the young person had entered a private chat with someone who claimed to have known her. This app as of late 2018 was ranked as seventh in the Apple charts above Spotify, Netflix, and Snapchat. Also with this app users are aloud to comment on other individuals videos which can be quite sexual it was reported in the BBC news there was over two hundred sexually explicated comments what where found on individuals videos which were posted by young children some only aged nine years old. Since then the company have deleted most of these comments when first reported to them the only limitation to this is the users who posted the sexually graphic comments were indeed aloud to stay on this social media platform. Thus, despite TikToks only rules against sexual messages which are directed to or towards children. The NSPCC conducted a survey with forty thousand schoolchildren in this survey it was discovered that twenty dive per cent of the children had live streamed through TikTok with a stranger. It was also discovered that one of every twenty children who were involved in the study were asked to take their clothes of during the live stream.

TikTok has took the world by storm since it was first created in 2017. Since it has been released TikTok has became the worlds fastest-growing social media platform to date since its release it has been downloaded more than 1.2 billion times and averages more than five hundred million active users currently. this social media platform is used for videos only you can’t post photos or status like you can on Facebook and now Snapchat. It has been reported that 80% of Americans use this app also currently the app is used more than Facebook, Snpachat and Instagram. In 2018 Facebook launched a rival app called Lasso in the effort to combat TikTok’s success however, it failed dramatically as it only averaged 1% of TikToks.

TikTok

It has been reported by the NSPCC that children who are as young as five years old are being targeted on Instagram as attempts have tripled. It has also been revealed that five thousand and one hundred online child grooming crimes via Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook were reported and recorded to the police in the space of eighteen months in 2018 after the new offence of sexual communication with a child was introduced to the United Kingdom. Of the five thousand and one hundred crimes reported Instagram accounted for 57 per cent of these. The NSPCC’s chief executive Peter Wanless, stated the following about Instagram “It is hugely concerning to see the sharp spike in grooming offences on Instagram, and it is vital that the platform designs basic protection more carefully into the service it offers young people.” For most of the cases the various police forces did not record which website or app was being used to groom the victim(s) however, they did notice a steep increase in the use of the social media account Instagram was observed by the reporting officers. Furthermore, to this in the first six months of the new offence being introduced to the United Kingdom from the months of April and September 2017, there was one hundred and twenty- six recorded reports of child grooming through the social media platform Instagram. It was also discovered that girls who are aged between twelve and fifteen were the most likely to be targeted by online groomers. In the space of a year which was between 2017 and 2018 the number of cases on Instagram rose by a staggering 200%. With each social media platform there are currently ages limitations for Instagram the age limit is thirteen years of age. A survey which was carried out by internet matters group with a thousand young people participating identified that 36% of eleven-year-old and 57% of twelve-year-old also use another social media platform Instagram. This is therefore against Instagram rules and regulations as stated above the members must be thirteen and over to have an Instagram account. However, in relation to this all forms of social media have a minimum age requirement if it is discovered an individual(s) has set up a social media account while underage it can be deleted as social media accounts do no ask the individual(s) to verify the dates of birth the individual(s). Therefore, it is exceptionally easy to set up another social media profile with a fake date of birth, a fake profile photo as well as a fake name therefore making it far too easy for the predator(s) to set up a fake profile through social media platform and make contact with their victim(s).

Instagram

In recent years there has been a steady increase in the use of social media platforms as well as the internet. As well as this it has also be reported in various news articles that child grooming via social media is on the up. It has been reported by the BBC news that in early 2019 the social media platform Instagram child grooming rate has almost tripled. The three top countries that have the highest reported potential victims for online grooming are Albanian, UK and Vietnamese nationalists. However, it is expected that the ‘dark figures’, the unreported cases, of online child grooming do indeed exceed the officially reported statistics as many crimes go on reported for numerous reasons such as being too frightened to report the crime. They may also not want to report such crime as they may feel ashamed for what has happened to them or the offender has informed the victim(s) that they will hurt their family and friends if they tell anyone. Social media sites are immensely popular with young people. This dissertation will look at each of the individual social media platforms that are being used to groom children online. ‘’It has been reported that 33% of the crimes committed against youths involved the offender making the first contact on the child’s social media site (Finkelhor, Mitchell, &Wolak, 2009)’’. Children who are as young as eleven are posting picture and other content on social media accounts more than forty time a day. Which can attract more friend request and followers depending on which social media account they use. Less than half of their friends or followers are real-life friends who they know and hang out with this is one of the main factors contributing to child grooming through a social media platform. Special Agent Wesley Tagtmeyer from the FBI stated that “in his experience, about 70% of youngsters will accept friend requests regardless of whether they know the requester” according to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (2011).  Even  worse than posting personal information for anyone to see is the fact that many youngsters will accept “friends” who are total strangers. “Nobody wants to just have five friends online,” Wing said. “It’s a popularity thing.” The more friends they have on their followers on Twitter or Instagram page or the more friends they have on their friends list the popular they will become and in todays society that’s everything to young people.

Social Media Platforms and Chatroom Sites That Are Being Used for Online Grooming

This chapter will be based on the existing literature surrounding child grooming through online social media platforms. This chapter will also try and give the reader(s) a better understanding of child grooming as well as the social media platforms which are being used to groom children such as Facebook, TikTok and twitter to name a few. As well as the age restrictions that are currently in place for young people before they sign up to a social media platform. This dissertation will also look at already published statistics which have been recorded by law enforcement, Interpol and Europol among other organizations which look at online child grooming. This dissertation will also look to identify which of the social media platforms are being used the most to groom children online as it has been reported by the BBC that grooming through Instagram has increased by 13%. This dissertation will also look online chat sites such as Omegle.