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- Author, Angus Crawford y Tony Smith
- Author's title, BBC News Investigations
A victim of child sexual abuse has asked Elon Musk to stop the propagation in his social network X of images of the pedophile aggression he suffered.
“Listen to that my abuse, and that of so many others, continues to circulate and being used as a merchandise is outrageous,” says Zora (fictional name), which lives in the United States and which they abused for the first time more than 20 years ago.
“Every time someone sells or shares child abuse material, it directly feeds the horrible original abuse,” denounces.
Network X states that it has “zero tolerance for child sexual abuse material” and that fighting those who exploit children is “a maximum priority.”
The BBC found images of Zora while investigating the global commerce of pedophile material, estimated at billions of dollars by Childlight, Global Institute of Child Safety, an organization dedicated to raising awareness about the problem of sexual exploitation of minors in the world.
The material was among a cache with thousands of similar photos and videos that were offered for sale in an X account.
We contacted the merchant through the Telegram messaging application, which led us to a bank account linked to a person in Yakarta, Indonesia.
Zora suffered abuse for the first time at the hands of a relative. A collection of images of their abuse has been widely shared and won interest among the pedophiles that gather that type of content and trade with it.
Many other victims face the same situation, since abuse images continue to circulate today.
“My body is not a merchandise. It has never been and will never be,” he emphasizes.
“Those who distribute this material are not passive spectators, they are accomplices.”
Tracking the X account
Zora's images were initially available only in the so -called dark webbut now you have to live with the reality that there are accounts of X that openly promote and disseminate links to access them.
Social networks are trying to clean their platforms of this illegal material, but face a problem of huge dimensions.
Only last year the National Center for missing and abused children (NCMEC) received more than 20 million complaints from technological companies about pedophile content on their platforms.
The NCMEC tries to identify the aggressors and victims and then contact the Prosecutor's Office and the Police.
We got in touch with the group of cyberactivists Anonymous, who tries to combat the trade of sexual abuse of minors in X. One of them told us that things are just as bad as always.
They put us on the track of an X account that had the photo of the head and shoulders of a child as a profile image.
There was nothing obscene in it, but the messages and emojis used made it clear that it offered the sale of pedophile material and there was a link to the Telegram messaging application.
Image source, Getty Images
The person behind the account was apparently in Indonesia, from where he offered “VIP packages”, collections of images and video files of abuse to sell them to pedophiles around the world.
Anonymous activists have been working to denounce the numerous accounts of this person to X so that the moderation systems of the platform eliminate them, but whenever this happened a new one opened.
The seller of this content handled more than 100 identical accounts. The activists told us that when they contacted him on Telegram, he told them that he had thousands of videos and images for sale.
“I have babies. Children 7-12,” he wrote in messages that the BBC read. He also explained that the content for sale included violations of children.
After knowing it, we also contacted the seller.
He sent us links to sampling materials, which we avoid opening.
We send them to the experts of the Canadian center for the protection of children, in Winnipeg, who works with the police and authorities.
“The telegram account was, in the absence of a better term, a 'tasting package' (taster pack), essentially a collage of the material he had available from all the different victims, “said Lloyd Richardson, CCCP technology director.
“When we look at all the different images in the collages, I would say there were thousands.”
Among the files were Zora images.
His abuser in the USA
Zora told us: “Over the years I have tried to overcome my past and not let my future determine, but the perpetrators and stalkers still find a way of seeing this because it would.”
As it grew, stalkers discovered Zora's identity, and contacted and threatened her online. She says she feels “harassed by a crime that stole my childhood.”
In search of the seller
To identify the trafficker who sold photos of Zora, we went through a buyer.
The trafficker sent us his bank information and an online payment account; Both had the same name of the headline.
Anonymous activist had discovered that this name was also linked to two money transfers and another bank account.
We locate a man with the same name that appeared in the accounts, in one direction on the outskirts of the capital of Indonesia, Yakarta.
A producer who works in the city for the World BBC service went to visit the direction and confronted a man in the place, who – seeing the evidence – was surprised.
“I don't know any of this,” he said.
The man confirmed that one of the bank accounts was his and said he was created for a single transaction related to a mortgage.
He said he had not used the account since then and that he would contact his bank to find out what had happened. He denied knowledge of the other bank account or money transfers.
We cannot know with certainty if, and to what extent, he could be involved and, as a result, we will not give his name.
Our research discovered that the way in which Zora images were marketed is a method used by hundreds of traffickers worldwide.
Publications in X use different hashtags They are relatives for pedophiles.
The images that appear on the platform are often taken from known child abuse images, but can be cut so that they are not obscene.
Elon Musk said that the elimination of child sexual abuse material was his “highest priority” when he assumed control of X, then known as Twitter, in 2022.
Image source, AFP via Getty Images
The social media platforms in general, not only X, could do much more to prevent criminals from publishing in this way, says Lloyd Richardson of the CCCP.
“It is great that we can send a elimination notification (to social media platforms) and that they eliminate the account, but that is the minimum.”
The problem is that users can return to platforms in a few days with a new account, he explains.
X told us that he has “zero tolerance” for child sexual exploitation.
“We continually invest in advanced detection to be able to take quick measures against the content and accounts that violate our rules,” said a spokesman.
The platform told us that it works “closely with the National Center for missing and exploited children and supports the efforts of order forces to process these atrocious crimes.”
Telegram said: “All channels are subjected to moderation and more than 565,000 groups and channels related to the dissemination of child sexual abuse material have been banned so far from 2025”.
The platform said it has more than a thousand moderators working on the subject.
“Telegram proactively monitors the public content throughout the platform and eliminates objectable material before it can reach users or be denounced,” said a spokesman.
When we told Zora that her photos were being marketed using X, she offered this message for the owner of the platform, Elon Musk:
“Our abuse is being shared, marketed and sold in the application you possess. If you would act without hesitation to protect your own children, I beg you to do the same for the rest of us. The time to act is now.”
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