Content warning: this investigation addresses sensitive issues related to the sexualization of minors and child pornography.
It takes just five minutes to go from an AI-generated sexual video of a minor on TikTok to real child pornography on Telegram. Some Telegram users offer it in private chats as if it were the menu: "CONTENT YOU WILL GET: Only cp/masturbation/striptease (all ages), Preteens (8-12 years old), Teens (13-16 years old), Mother and son (all ages), Mother and daughter (all ages), Father and daughter (all ages), Zoo/Bestiality (all ages) (only available in Premium)." CP is the acronym used online for “child pornography.” Other menus include ‘toddlers’ (children aged 1 to 3), “Rape (real),” and “Real incest.”
How does a pedophile get there? In sexual videos of minors on TikTok, whether created with artificial intelligence or reposted without permission from real accounts of minors, there are users who advertise their Telegram accounts in the comments. From there, all you have to do is open a conversation in the messaging app for them to try to sell you their “material”: “Telegram is safe, bro, that's why I use it.” We have identified up to 11 Telegram accounts that sell child pornography, and seven of them have sent proof that they have such material. Maldita.es has reported these accounts and their content to the Spanish Police.
The modus operandi: comments on TikTok lead to Telegram accounts where child pornography is sold and exchanged
An image with a username and the Telegram logo in a TikTok comment is enough to take us from this platform directly to the sale of child pornography. Videos of real or AI-generated girls and teenagers are filled with comments that, with a simple “exchange,” “telegram,” and “tlg [Telegram]” or an image, redirect us to Telegram accounts that offer to buy or exchange child sexual abuse material through private conversations. In addition to these terms, accounts often use keywords such as “pizza” or ‘cp’ to refer to child pornography. In fact, four of the accounts contacted included “pizza” in their name or images of this food to promote their content.
We contacted them directly through a fake Telegram account. We wrote to 14 of the accounts that openly posted their messaging app username in TikTok comments: 11 of them automatically sent us a menu listing all the content they had for sale. “Rapes (real),” ‘toddlers’ (children between 1 and 3 years old), “incest (real),” “cp all ages (5-17),” “preteens,” “BDSM (all ages),” and bestiality are some of the types of abuse offered, all involving minors. Seven users sent us child pornography without us asking for it to “prove” that they were serious, something we reported to the Spanish Police's child pornography mailbox.
In addition to the types of child abuse they offer, there are also price lists and platforms through which they consider it “safe” to make payments. “$30 for 80 videos, $60 for 350 videos, $100 for mega link,” offers one of these accounts, which has an apparently real image of a minor as its profile picture. “$20 for 100 videos, $25 for 200 videos, $30 for 300 videos, $40 for 400 videos, $50 for 500 videos, $70 for 600 videos+link+group,” says another that has a drawing of a girl eating pizza.
“This is your last chance, otherwise I'll block you,” “So, are you interested or not?”, “You have to do it quickly because I have others waiting.” These accounts repeatedly urged us to close the sale and assured us that their payment methods were completely secure and anonymous: “PayPal is anonymous, or crypto [cryptocurrencies]” or “no one will track you,” they told us.
We also contacted ten users who used the word “exchange” in the comments on TikTok posts: three of them sent us their Telegram accounts, and when we wrote to them via this app, they told us that they only exchanged child pornography, they did not sell it. One of them sent us photographs of a teenage girl who he claimed had pornographic content. According to him, she was his sister's friend and was 14 years old.
Telegram provides anonymity and privacy, something that these users take advantage of as a selling point
All the users we spoke to feel protected on the messaging app and make it known: “You can't be tracked, Telegram is safe.” Germán Andrés Olano, an IT security expert and hacker who has lent us his superpowers, explained that this platform provides tools that allow for a great deal of anonymity, such as the ability to hide your phone number and other data. This gives “a supposed sense of protection where you can say what you want, sell what you want, and filter buyers who are truly aligned with your ideology or interests,” adds Olano.
According to Olano, Telegram's creators shield themselves behind privacy and freedom of expression to avoid providing information when a country has requested content from a channel that was in breach of its legislation. In fact, in August 2024, the French courts charged Pavel Durov, CEO of the platform, with laundering crimes and refusing to disclose information to the authorities, including the dissemination of pedophile content. On September 23, 2024, days after Durov's arrest in France, the company amended its privacy policies to include that it will cooperate with authorities in investigating crimes committed on its app.
The messaging app must cooperate with authorities and remove illegal content, such as child pornography, if it becomes aware that it is circulating
Like TikTok, Telegram must comply with the Digital Services Act (DSA) and remove illegal content if it is aware of its existence. Although it is not subject to the strict obligations of very large online platforms such as TikTok (as it has not been designated as such), technology lawyer Samuel Parra explains that, when it comes to child pornography, there is no doubt about its responsibilities: “This type of content is considered, without question, illegal, so it does not need, for example, for any authority to declare such content as such.”
For its part, TikTok must also remove these comments from its platform “diligently, as soon as it becomes aware of them,” Marcos Judel, a lawyer specializing in data protection, AI, and digital law, tells Maldita.es.
In addition, according to the DSA, Telegram must “inform the competent authorities in order to prosecute the perpetrator of such infringing conduct, preserve the relevant evidence, and cooperate in any investigations that may be opened,” Parra explains. The lawyer adds that the European Union directive that regulates it and the Spanish Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Act also impose obligations on Telegram to remove content and cooperate with the authorities.
The encrypted messaging app claims to have “a zero-tolerance policy for child sexual abuse material.” According to its data, it has banned more than 890,000 child pornography groups and channels in 2025, but there is little clarity about how the platform's moderation system works, and the app does not allow users to report messages in conversations with private accounts such as those analyzed in this investigation.
Accounts that sell and exchange child pornography can face prison sentences, even if the material originates abroad
In addition to the platform's responsibility, users who sell and exchange this content through Telegram can face penalties of one to five years (and up to nine in more serious cases) for the production, sale, distribution, exhibition, and facilitation of child pornography, according to Article 189 of the Spanish Penal Code. “As for buyers, the purchase or possession of this type of material is also punishable by one to five years in prison,” says Rahul Uttamchandani, a lawyer specializing in technology and privacy.
This is true regardless of where the material originates or who is offering it, as Judel points out: “Being outside Spain does not guarantee impunity. If someone sells or exchanges child pornography from another country, they can still be prosecuted in several cases, such as when the content is offered, distributed, or can be accessed from Spain.”
Report it on the platform and report it to the police, and never forward or download it: this is what we must do if we encounter such content
As users, what can we do if we encounter such content? “The best suggestion is to report the content using the systems that these platforms themselves have in place,” suggests Parra.
If we come across these comments on TikTok promoting these Telegram accounts, we can press and hold the comment and, in the pop-up window, press ‘report’ and select the corresponding reason.
For Telegram, the process depends on whether the conversation is private or not. The app allows any user to report content they consider illegal and have found on a channel through the app itself, but if these conversations take place between users or in group chats, this option is not available.
Another option offered by the platform is to request the automatic removal of illegal content via email at [email protected], but in the case of private conversations, it will not allow us to obtain direct links to the chat for moderation. Because of this, we are limited to sending user information, such as their name or number. “If you send a request by email, be sure to include links (such as t.me/... or @...) to the content on Telegram that you think needs attention from our moderators,” the app advises.
Outside the app, we can report an illegal message sent to us by a user to the police or a court. Parra emphasizes that it is very important to report it directly to the police. To do so in Spain, he recommends filling out the online form they have for reporting such content or contacting them via email at [email protected].
Please note that we should not download, screenshot, or photograph the content, as indicated in an infographic by Pablo Duchement, a forensic expert in social media crimes against minors. The specialist recommends attaching web links to the material, noting the date and time when it was found.
In the case of Telegram, Samuel Parra suggests sharing “something that identifies that account or chat,” such as the username or phone number. “I would only use screenshots if they do not show child pornography,” adds the lawyer. “What we must not do is forward the content to other people or save a copy of those images, as we could be committing a crime of distribution or possession of child pornography,” concludes Parra.
The maldito Germán Andrés Olano, an expert in computer security and member of MigraVoice, has contributed his superpowers to this article.