AEPD rejected a nationwide suspension after opening a probe into alleged child sexual abuse material on TikTok. Spain’s attorney general has also ordered a criminal investigation.
Spain’s data protection watchdog AEPD said on 11 November that it had opened a probe into the alleged proliferation of child sexual abuse material on TikTok. It rejected the government’s demand to temporarily block the app nationwide, choosing instead to pursue measures aimed at specific content.
The government’s demand followed an investigation published on 9 November by Maldita.es, a Spanish nonprofit foundation that combats disinformation and promotes transparency. Its cofounder and chief executive is Clara Jiménez Cruz. It said it found 1,183 explicit items of child sexual abuse content posted by 231 profiles, with 48 million views.
Separately, Spain’s attorney general ordered the cybercrimes prosecutor to investigate potential crimes involving the production and distribution of child sexual abuse material and the corruption of minors on TikTok. The order followed a request for action from the Ministry of Youth and Children, which sought measures to protect children who might be affected.
Maldita.es said it monitored TikTok for 35 days in September and October, analyzing profiles, comments and livestreams and creating accounts to test recommendations. It said it identified roughly 26,000 accounts it suspected belonged to pedophiles, a classification that is not a finding of criminal guilt, and gave the details to authorities; 7,000 of the suspected profiles were in Spanish.
The foundation said its test accounts were recommended 19 livestreams by minors over three days, all broadcast from schools. It also alleged that children were asked to perform sexualized actions in exchange for paid TikTok gifts and that the platform retained a share of the money, though the exact share was unclear.
Maldita.es said that by the time its findings were published, TikTok had removed about one-tenth of the content it had flagged and blocked access in Spain to about one-quarter of the illegal posts. The foundation said it separately filed a criminal complaint against TikTok with the cybercrime prosecutor’s office, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance.
The monthly increase eased from September’s 0.6%. The government did not publish the usual annual comparison because a shutdown stopped data collection in October 2025.
In a statement reproduced by Maldita.es, TikTok urged the foundation to share its findings fully and alleged that its refusal hindered the removal of material and reports to law enforcement. Maldita.es said TikTok had requested accounts, videos, hashtags and links by email. The foundation said it had reported a sample through TikTok’s official channels but declined to email videos or links because it considered that doing so would distribute the material or facilitate access to it.
Maldita.es said it had given TikTok its entire database from an earlier investigation about six months previously, after the platform could not locate reports made through its official channels. The foundation said it notified TikTok of the new findings on the Friday before publication and had received no further contact after inviting the platform to discuss them.
AEPD said it would ask Maldita.es for the identified links and TikTok for information on its removal measures. After examining the information, it said it would take measures such as blocking links and specific content involving unlawful treatment of minors’ data.
The Spanish watchdog said its powers are limited because Ireland’s Data Protection Commission is TikTok’s lead privacy regulator in Europe. AEPD plans to share information with Irish authorities, other European regulators and the European Commission. Spain’s youth and children minister, Sira Rego, has also requested an urgent meeting with TikTok representatives in Spain. She announced both the prosecutorial and meeting requests a few hours after the investigation was published.
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