Illustration of the Chinese Tiktok application.

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AFP

Several very popular TikTok account holders are taking advantage of their visibility and notoriety to ask for money from their underage fans, warns

60 million consumers

.

The investigation published this Wednesday is based on testimonies collected on the elle_sassument_off account after a call for witnesses.

150 stories from TikTok users who paid big names in the social network or who attended these practices were received.

The platform makes it possible to transmit a sum of money ranging from 1.09 to 109.99 euros to the authors of live videos thanks to an internal system.

This is also the basis of its financial operation.

With a single click, the user distributes virtual coins that he has purchased with a bank card.

On #TikTok, influencers offer their young subscribers to boost their popularity for a fee.


Transactions are done with a single click and the payouts received by these popular #tiktokers can be substantial.


@tiktok_France



https://t.co/6rURbF8h4s

- 60 Million consumers (@ 60millions) September 10, 2020

Hope and promises

Young users pay their idols in the hope of gaining proximity to them.

A 16-year-old girl thus paid a total of 600 euros to Oriane Farib, known by her 2.9 million subscribers under the name of aanxfly.

In return, she was notably followed by the influencer and integrated into a private group.

But the links have loosened each time the transfers were spaced out.

Other users of the social network have donated money in exchange for promises of new followers or interactions with a TikTok star.

Big names on the platform would also encourage money transfers via PayPal.

A 13-year-old boy used this method and his father's bank card to offer Benoît Chevalier, an influencer followed by 3.6 million people, "several hundred euros".

His parents canceled the transaction, but the "tiktoker" then threatened his subscriber virtually and then face-to-face.

He finally apologized.

"For example, the average age of our followers is around 14 years old," says Mélanie, co-manager of the elles_sassument_off account.

Very often, asking for money from its subscribers on TikTok is therefore indirectly asking minors to get their hands on the wallet.

"

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  • High-Tech

  • Application

  • Internet

  • Teenager

  • Money

  • TikTok

  • Society