The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has ordered the social media giant TikTok to immediately remove all sexual content involving minors from its platform, including livestreams. The move comes in response to a recent damning investigation by the BBC that uncovered widespread child exploitation on TikTok in Kenya. This has sparked widespread concerns about the platform’s content moderation practices and its compliance with child protection laws in Africa.
The BBC report, titled “TikTok Profiting from Sexual Livestreams in Kenya Involving Children,” published on March 3, 2025, exposed disturbing cases of minors as young as 15 engaging in sexualised livestreams on TikTok.
The investigation revealed that young women in Kenya have been using the platform to advertise and negotiate payments for explicit content, which is then shared through other messaging services.
According to the report, TikTok retains a significant commission, up to 70%, of the revenue generated from these livestreams, profiting directly from the exploitation. The documentary has sparked outrage and intensified scrutiny of the platform’s operations in Kenya, a country with a young, tech-savvy population and widespread internet access.
Read also: How TikTok is profiting from sexual exploitation of 15-year-old African girls
CA Director General David Mugonyi has condemned the violations highlighted in the report, emphasising that they breach both Kenyan and international laws designed to protect children and ensure online safety.
“In response to this report by the BBC, we are directing TikTok to actively pull down all sexual content involving minors on their platform, including on livestreams,” Mugonyi stated.
He underscored that such activities undermine the safety of vulnerable individuals and contravene legal standards, including Kenya’s Children Act and the Data Protection Act, as well as international child rights frameworks.
CA launches investigation into TikTok activities
The CA has gone beyond issuing a directive to launching a formal inquiry in collaboration with other government agencies to investigate the extent of these breaches and hold those responsible accountable.
Mugonyi warned that the authority “will not hesitate to issue sanctions” if TikTok is found to have violated Kenyan law. This inquiry aims to uncover how such harmful content has persisted on the platform despite TikTok’s stated policies against solicitation and exploitation.
TikTok has also been ordered to provide a detailed explanation of how its content moderation systems have failed to detect and remove this material.
“We are directing TikTok to explain how offensive content is able to bypass its content moderation mechanisms,” the CA stated.
Additionally, the platform must submit a concrete plan outlining how it intends to bolster its safeguards to prevent the exploitation of minors and ensure compliance with both Kenyan and international regulations. The authority’s demands reflect growing frustration with TikTok’s apparent inability to enforce its own safety policies, a concern echoed in previous regulatory engagements with the platform in Kenya.
In 2023, the Kenyan government had directed TikTok to address content moderation challenges following similar concerns. At the time, TikTok committed to enhancing regulatory oversight and establishing a local office to coordinate its operations in the country. However, the latest allegations suggest that significant gaps remain.
“These new allegations indicate that TikTok’s enforcement of its policies against solicitation and exploitation is inadequate,” Mugonyi noted, signaling that the platform’s earlier promises have fallen short.
CA’s efforts to sanitise the social media space
Beyond its crackdown on TikTok, the CA is ramping up efforts to protect children in Kenya’s rapidly expanding digital space. The authority announced plans to intensify public awareness campaigns, targeting parents and guardians with education on online safety. These initiatives will promote the use of parental control tools and safe internet practices to shield minors from harmful content.
“We reiterate our commitment to fostering a safe, secure, and ethical digital environment for all Kenyans,” the CA affirmed in its statement.
The authority also issued a broader call to action, urging all online service providers operating in Kenya to adhere to legal and ethical standards concerning the protection of minors and the prevention of harmful content dissemination.
With TikTok ranking as the third most popular social media platform in Kenya, behind only Facebook and WhatsApp, its influence is undeniable, particularly among the country’s youth. As of 2024, TikTok boasted 4.7 million users in Kenya, many of whom use the platform for entertainment, creativity, and economic opportunities through livestreams.
TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, has faced mounting global pressure over its handling of harmful content. In a statement responding to the BBC report, a TikTok spokesperson claimed the company has “zero tolerance for exploitation” and highlighted its “strict safety policies,” including robust livestream rules and moderation in 70 languages, such as Swahili.
The platform also pointed to partnerships with local experts and its Sub-Saharan Africa Safety Advisory Council as part of its efforts to strengthen safety measures. However, critics, including former content moderators interviewed by the BBC, allege that TikTok has long been aware of child exploitation on its livestreams, evidenced by an internal investigation in 2022, but has failed to act decisively, possibly due to the financial incentives tied to these transactions.
The unfolding situation in Kenya mirrors broader challenges faced by TikTok worldwide. In the United States, a lawsuit filed by Utah in 2024 accused the platform of profiting from child exploitation, while Italy recently fined TikTok units for inadequate content checks.
As the CA’s inquiry progresses, the stakes are high for TikTok in Kenya. Failure to comply could result in severe penalties, further damaging its reputation and operations in one of Africa’s most vibrant digital markets.
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