"Children's lives are crumbling": why the sexualization of minors on the Internet is dangerous

Rustam (name has been changed -

RT

) from Tatarstan has been using TikTok for about six months, he has just over a thousand subscribers.

He's 13 but looks older.

Mom, according to the boy, "does not yet know" about this hobby.

And if he finds out, the young man continues, "he will always understand me in everything, I am sure."

True, it is easy to doubt this.

In his videos, the boy swears a lot, smokes vapes, uses snus and naswai.

In a few more videos, he publishes lipsticks (synchronous opening of the mouth to music, a popular genre on TikTok.

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) to the rapper Morgenstern's song "Rose Wine 2" with the lines "sucking is a talent."

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• © Seng kui Lim

This track was released in early March and immediately went viral.

Tiktokers, among whom there are many schoolchildren, staged a kind of challenge across the country - to the lines of the song, they depicted obscene actions imitating oral sex.

Often, the videos were recorded against the background of unsuspecting parents, the song contains the line "Baby, do it as if your mother does not see."  

Challenge caused outrage, Morgenstern was even offered to be prosecuted for calling for prostitution, because of the line "if you want to be rich, start sucking." 

The sexualized content with the participation of minors in the application is not limited to this.

Twerk and other erotic dances, including those performed by very young children, discussion of sex and imitation of sexual actions, songs with emphasized sexual content can be easily found in the application.

Unsurprisingly, content like this can attract adult perverts.

In March, public activists from the “Hand over the pedophile” movement drew attention to a man from Belarus who registered in TikTok under the nickname “Seryoga”.

He posted dozens of videos where he talked about how he was going to corrupt his stepdaughter. 

In one of the videos, the man told at all how he was inspired by the Skopinsky maniac Viktor Mokhov, and how he himself would have held the girls captive and mocked them.

Tellingly, Seryoga's videos gained tens and even hundreds of thousands of views.

Subsequently, the man himself deleted all his videos when Belarusian law enforcement officers became interested in him after the complaint “Hand over the pedophile”. 

TikTok does not disclose the data of its audience, the press service explained to RT.

But, according to Apple estimates, last year the application became the most popular in Russia, and according to the research company Mediascope as of January 2021, its monthly audience exceeded 15.6 million people. 

"Came back from a date with crash"

The audience of Likee, another popular service among schoolchildren in Russia and the CIS, today exceeds 15 million people.

This was reported to RT in the press service of the company.

Like TikTok, users post and watch super short videos, no longer than one minute.

Compared to TikTok, the application has a lot more children - primarily because of the bright design, colorful special effects offered by the built-in video editor, and a simple interface.

As in TikTok, according to Likee's rules, you can register in the app only from the age of 13.

But in reality, if you choose the age from 13 to 17 when registering, a huge number of videos with children of much younger age immediately pop up in the recommendations of the service.

In reviews of Likee on Google Play and the App Store, there are constant outraged comments.

“There are a lot of young children from 3 to 9 years old”, “small children shoot videos of an intimate nature”, “there is a lot of pornography of children under 11 years old”, “why your application does not block content where children of 8-12 years old wear challenging clothes, where do adults kiss children?

Don't you think that you are formulating an opinion that pedophilia is normal? "

- users are indignant.

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• © Rebecca Wood / EyeEm

“Tell me what your parents don't know,” a 13-year-old boy asks a short girl in a long yellow wig in one of Likee videos.

"I have a boyfriend!"

- happily informs the girl, adding that he is 28 years old, and she is 9. 

In another video, a girl no older than 10 years old says with a smile: "I came back from a date with a crash (the one for whom they have strong feelings, an object of desire and adoration.

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), and the white on my face is not mayonnaise."

Another 13-year-old lykersha with a friend, both brightly painted and in short tight dresses, move their hips in a not childish way, causing the audience to ask where the parents are looking.

A second later, the answer appears in the frame - the satisfied mother of one of them, dancing in the same outfit.

"I approached it like a business"

Parents in general often not only do not discourage the sexualization of their children on TikTok and Likee, but also welcome it.

A striking confirmation is the recent history of children-likers from Ukraine.

8-year-old Yana and 13-year-old Sasha (children's names have been changed -

RT

) had accounts popular in the application, the girl had more than 6 million subscribers, the boy had more than half a million.

At some point, the children started dating.

But gradually, from innocent hugs and holding the hand, they moved on to a completely "adult" relationship: they kissed, hugged each other and even slept in the same bed.

All this was broadcast on Likee with the knowledge and approval of the parents, until the Ukrainian law enforcement authorities became interested in Milana's mother.

According to him, Ivan, the father of an 8-year-old liker, also receives a lot of complaints.

The girls' videos, which are filmed by dad, are mainly dedicated to sex dance.

"She really likes it, they even put a pylon at home," Ivan tells RT.

The idea to create a Likee account for his daughter belongs to him, he also removes, edits and develops the channel.

“As an entrepreneur, I initially approached this as a business,” explains the girl's father.

According to him, in the beginning he developed a channel with his daughter on YouTube.

“But then the rules for children's content changed there, it became impossible to gain views,” Ivan continues.

According to him, it was not possible to earn money on the channel, and then he drew attention to Likee.

Filming and editing there is easier than on YouTube, and there are no such restrictions for children's content. 

In the comments to the videos of the young dancer, there are many users who are outraged by her occupation.

Ivan reacts to criticism with restraint: “For some, the pylon is a striptease, but for others it is a kind of sport.

I maintain an account and follow the comments, it sometimes takes a lot of time to clean up.

But I just don't delete the negative ones, only swearing and insults. "

When asked about the potential risks posed by online pedophiles, Ivan also answers philosophically: “If a person gets excited by any video with a child, then for him and Instagram, and in general all social networks should be closed, and at the same time most films.”

Now the girl's account has 45 thousand subscribers, and her dad says that so far blogging is more of a hobby and does not bring income.

“But this is more my hobby than hers,” the man admits.

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• © Astrakan Images

"The psyche is crumbling"

“I see a threat in the fact that many parents are monetizing content at the expense of their children.

They see that the child is good at it, and he can earn good money, ”says Yulia Stakhiva, digital marketer and SMM specialist, to RT.

And this is bad, since the parent-child relationship develops into a more commercial one over time, the expert emphasizes.

“When a child first brings in $ 100, then $ 1000, the parent realizes that he can pay him a month of work.

Therefore, instead of earning themselves, many parents force their children to work for them and create a whole industry out of it.

In the United States, for example, parents are raising massively YouTuber children who earn a lot of money because children's content is the highest paid, ”explains Stakhiva.

Parents who are having fun in this way need to know - sooner or later it will end badly, emphasizes the Ombudsman for the Rights of the Child in Moscow Olga Yaroslavskaya.

“Or for them - they can be charged with an administrative article for improper performance of their parental duties, and in some cases criminal for involving a minor in sexual acts.

Or for the child himself, ”she explains.

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• © Andrei Sauko

Such actions of parents entail the destruction of children's lives, clinical psychologist Maria Ehrlich is convinced.

“Children who have undergone early eroticization by participating in such videos can start smoking and try alcohol early enough.

Especially if this activity develops into making money, if parents are forced to do so.

Often, by the age of 14, these children have time to try almost everything, from cigarettes to self-harm.

They may develop eating disorders, in other words, their psyche collapses, and we get deeply traumatized people in adulthood, "the psychologist explains to RT.

Ehrlich recalls that there are other threats.

“Children posting eroticized content may face blackmailers who entice intimate photos and then extort money, threatening to publish them.

Children can also become victims of pedophiles, ”she said.

Bypassing restrictions

TikTok's policies prohibit users from posting, uploading, streaming, or transmitting content that “directly or indirectly depicts sexual intercourse involving minors, erotic kissing, content depicting a minor containing sexually explicit lyrics” or “depicting sexually explicit dances. character with the participation of a minor, including twerk, committed by the participant in the process or another person. "

Likee has similar rules - however, their observance is complicated by the fact that they are still available to users in Russia exclusively in English. 

"According to our corporate policy, it is prohibited to publish the following content that contains physical or psychological violence against minors, encouragement or distribution of pornography by children, publications of a sexual nature with the participation of minors, including the use of vocabulary related to sex and pornography," RT said in press service of the service.

"We do not allow users under the age of 13 to post content, chat or use other features alone," the company said.

In practice, these restrictions do not always work. 

“To get around them, you just need to ask someone from your older acquaintances to register an account for yourself, or take someone's access to it, or even ask your parents - not everyone is interested in what the child is doing online,” Yulia Stakhiva explains to RT.

- And the ban on publishing obscenities is also bypassed - when they write obscene speech, they replace individual letters with symbols, signs.

There is a whole sign language in TikTok, under which they disguise obscene things so as not to be banned, ”the expert continues.

"The root of the problem is in the family"

Children also post sexualized content themselves, as a rule, without the participation of their parents.

But the majority of such children do not do it out of a good life, says Maria Ehrlich.

“Rather, these are the guys who have nowhere to realize themselves, and who have social or pedagogical neglect, lack of full-fledged contact in the family, mutual understanding, and upbringing.

Often these are children of drinking parents.

A normal child will not do this, if only by accident or one-off, out of curiosity, ”the expert said. 

According to Anna Levchenko, the leader of the all-Russian movement "Hand over the pedophile", a marginal culture cannot influence a child whose family is fine.

"They want to imitate those children whose home is not all right, with upbringing, with whom parents do not communicate normally, no one explains why it is dangerous to undress on camera, that anyone can save and distribute this video," Levchenko said.

The head of the public center for the protection of traditional family values ​​"Ivan Chai" Elina Zhgutova believes that applications should be banned.

“Take a look at this flash mob to the song of Morgenstern.

All of these children are potential victims of pedophiles.

It seems that this army of children is specially prepared for some kind of sabbath! "

- she is indignant.

 “I am a supporter of bans, although I understand that it is radical.

But education, in principle, is a system of rewards and punishments, permissions and prohibitions.

Without this, we will not go anywhere, we must prohibit ”- Zhgutova is convinced.

Speaking about the technical feasibility of such a ban, the expert believes that it is quite feasible.

“We could not have imagined before that smoking can be banned.

But it was forbidden, and nothing.

It's the same with casinos.

In the same China, they are successfully combating such phenomena, so everything depends solely on political will.

The state must educate its citizens, ”Zhgutova said.

Anna Levchenko is convinced that prohibitions alone will not help the cause.

“Some people are now demanding from Roskomnadzor to 'demolish everything', but this will not help.

Once there is such a trend among children, as soon as we close one application, they will switch to another, ”she explains. 

“I don’t think the problem is in the applications themselves.

The root of the problem is in the family, and the simplest thing to start with in order to solve it is to be interested in the life of your children, to talk to them every day, at least about how they are doing, ”Levchenko said.

With proper use and control by parents, Likee and TikTok can be useful to a child, says Yulia Sahiva.

“You can find friends in these services, there is less bullying than in real life.

In school, not everyone and not always succeeds in making friends.

This can be especially difficult for children with special features of appearance or character.

And these communities accept everyone and reveal the unique aspects of a person, individuality.

There is no such shaming as on Instagram, where you have to be perfect and only then you will be liked. "

For many teenagers, this is a good opportunity not to feel lonely, not to get depressed and learn to accept themselves, Sahiva continues.

“I know a lot of stories when extraordinary children found friends and revealed talents in these applications,” the expert says.