TikTok ‘fails to ban paedos’ who pose as fans to send sick sexual chats to kids as young as 9

KIDS' video app TikTok has been blasted for allowing paedos to run rampant on its platform.

An investigation found the app is failing to block sickos who are sending sexual messages to children as young as nine.

It's been branded a "hunting ground for paedophiles" by concerned campaigners, who have called for regulators to step in.

The news comes just days after TikTok partnered with UK web safety giant Internet Matters to help keep kids safe online.

TikTok, which lets young users create and share short videos with music and camera effects, has more than 500million users, many of them under 18.

A found hundreds of sexual comments posted on TikTok clips uploaded by teenagers and children.

The comments were reported through TikTok, and the company subsequently removed them.

However, their authors were allowed to remain on the site and continue leaving sick messages.

A number of users found by the team repeatedly asked teenage girls to post sexual pictures or messages.

Children as young as nine were found to be using the site, despite TikTok supposedly banning under 13s.

TikTok introduced ID checks in the US to enforce this rule, but has no plans to bring these safety measures to the UK.

The site uses a combination of AI and human moderation to find and ban inappropriate content. TikTok refused to reveal how many moderators it employs.

A spokesperson told The Sun Online: "Promoting a safe and positive app environment for our users is our top priority. We are committed to continuously enhancing our existing measures and introducing additional technical and moderation processes in our ongoing commitment to our users."

Concerned campaigners and politicians called for tech firms to take more responsibility for what happens on their platforms.

England's Children's Commissioner Anne Longfield promised to hold a meeting with TikTok to discuss the BBC's findings.

"I want children to be able to enjoy everything that the app can offer, but we need to make sure that those responsibilities are taken seriously," she said.

UK children's charity the NSPCC warned that abusers use live streaming apps like TikTok as a "hunting ground".

They called for an independent regulator to crackdown on social media sites who don't do enough to protect children online.

A spokesperson told The Sun Online: "A worrying number of children are being contacted via livestreaming apps such as TikTok, by adults who use them as a gateway to groom and harm young people.

"Shockingly we found from a survey of 40,000 schoolchildren that a quarter had livestreamed with someone they have never met, and one in 20 children had been asked to take their clothes off.

"It is alarming how little progress has been made by social networks to combat children being groomed on their platforms.

"That’s why our Wild West Web campaign calls on Government to introduce tough social media regulation to force social networks to keep children safe and, if they consistently fail, hit them with tough sanctions including hefty fines."

The shocking news follows our own investigation into TikTok which last month found that kids as young as eight are being groomed on the app.

We previously unveiled that Musical.ly, a video site bought by TikTok last year, was being used by paedos to send sexual messages to children.