Pedophiles on Tiktok – how to avoid them

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Pedophiles on Tiktok how to avoid them

A 44-year-old man fakes that he is a 14-year-old girl on Snapchat and Tiktok.

By flattering, manipulating and threatening, he then gets girls of the same age to perform sexual acts on themselves.

– They usually say that shame is the perpetrator’s best friend, says Emelie Källfelt, senior prosecutor.

Pretending to be young, buying “nudes” or just following young people on social media can give pedophiles direct access to children online.

Several sentences from the last few months show how perpetrators use social media to carry out their abuse.

A 44-year-old man in central Sweden was sentenced in October to five and a half years in prison for 86 crimes, including child rape. Common to the crimes was that the man had not met his victims physically.

The 44-year-old pretended to be a 14-year-old girl on both Snapchat and Tiktok. None of his victims understood that it was actually a grown man they were chatting with.

The judgment shows a picture of how the man, with threats, manipulation and flattery, got the victims to perform sexual acts on themselves. Actions he filmed and saved.

Convicted of 86 crimes

In Western Sweden, a 20-year-old boy meets an 11-year-old girl via YuboYuboYubo is an app developed to meet new friends. The users can be as young as 13 years old.. They see each other several times and have intercourse, with and without consent. Regardless, it is always classified as child rape when an adult has intercourse with someone under the age of 15.

He makes her film herself performing several sexual acts on herself. Then he gets to know more people around her.

When the verdict is handed down in September this year, he will have turned 23 and will be sentenced to five years in prison for the rape of four young people under the age of 15.

Three victims have been forced to expose themselves online. Two have been physically raped by him.

full screen Genre picture. Photo: Martin Meissner / AP

“The cool guy”

Emelie Källfelt, senior prosecutor specializing in online sex crimes against children, describes the perpetrators on social media as the flattering type.

– It can be the “cool guy” who is not that much older, handsome and who makes you interested. Sooner or later the person wants you to send a “nude”.

What the 44-year-old and the 23-year-old have in common is that they first managed to get the victims to send images of a milder nature. Pictures they then threatened to leak if the victims did not send rougher pictures of themselves.

– They usually say that shame is the perpetrator’s best friend, says Emelie Källfelt, senior prosecutor.

full screen Tiktok. Photo: Fredrik Sandberg /TT

Swish exposed the pedophile

A 47-year-old man in southern Sweden is tipped off by a colleague about a young girl who, according to him, “likes to sell pictures of herself”.

On Tiktok and Snapchat, he gets the 12-year-old to broadcast live when she performs sexual acts on herself.

Eventually they meet, climb trees and play, but also have intercourse. He promises to drive her home if he is allowed to have intercourse with her again.

The girl’s father traces everything through a Swish payment from the 47-year-old to his daughter. The man will be sentenced in June 2023 to six years in prison.

According to prosecutor Emelie Källfelt, it is important to go by gut feeling if you are contacted online as a young person.

– If something doesn’t feel good, it probably isn’t, says Emelie Källfelt and continues:

– You can never know who you are chatting with until you meet the person. And by that I mean never.

FACTSSocial media the most common crime scene for sex crimes against children

  • The perpetrators are where the children are – if children hang out on social media, the perpetrators hang out
  • In Sweden, social media is today the most common criminal arena for all reported sexual abuse against children in primary school, according to BRÅ’s report 2023:8
  • The Internet is a very effective tool for people who want to sexually abuse children
  • Contact is easy, can be anonymous and a situation can quickly get out of control
  • Online sexual assault can be just as serious as assault committed in a physical space
  • Children can be forced to penetrate themselves with various objects or expose themselves to very degrading actions online
  • The abuses are often documented on picture or film

    • Read moreFACTSTips to avoid online pedophiles

  • You can never know who you are chatting with until you meet the person
  • Don’t send a picture that you wouldn’t be comfortable hanging on the fridge at home
  • Go by gut feeling – if something doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t
  • You don’t have to do something you don’t want to
  • One is under no obligation to be polite or even respond to a person who seems strange
  • If someone threatens to spread a picture or video of someone who doesn’t feel okay, it’s not the whole world – report the person to the police so they get caught

    • Read moreFACTSTips for children’s loved ones

  • Keep an eye on which friends/followers the child has on social media
  • The more contacts and unknown people the child has contact with via the Internet, the greater the risk of perpetrators
  • Pay attention if a child seems worried, anxious or withdraws with or guards the mobile in a way you are not used to
  • Dare to talk to children about sexual abuse online
  • Never assign blame – it is never a child’s fault that they are victims of sexual abuse

    • Read moreFACTS Stricter legislation results in harsher penalties

    On August 1, 2022, the law on rape against children under the age of fifteen was tightened

    Regardless of whether it is vaginal, anal or oral intercourse or another sexual act which, in view of the seriousness of the violation, is comparable to intercourse, a person is sentenced for rape of a child to prison for a minimum of three and a maximum of six years.

    The same applies to anyone who improperly induces the child to commit or endure such an act

    Read more

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