HOLD TITLE
We spend a lot of time examining what children and teenagers actually see online.
In our recent research, Infinite Scroll, we analysed children’s TikTok watch history data: data held by TikTok which shows every video a child has watched for up to the previous two years. Children downloaded the data themselves from TikTok, using their right to access their personal data under GDPR, and shared it with us with their consent.
Multiple 14–15-year-olds saw sexualised content in their TikTok feeds, including videos mimicking pornographic content
Our analysis of one month of watch history data, from January 2026, found that multiple 14- and 15-year-olds had been shown sexualised content in their TikTok feeds.
Some of this content took the form of sexualised dancing and suggestive posts, often featuring women dancing in bikinis, leggings, or other revealing clothing, accompanied by hashtags such as #sexy, #hotgirl, #baddie, #leggings, and #babygirl. This kind of content may be familiar to people who have recently looked at teenagers’ feeds.
Examples of sexualised videos children saw
However, some children also saw videos like the examples below, which appeared to mimic pornographic content:
Example of sexualised videos children saw
This sexualised content seemed to be designed to mimic pornographic content, while remaining just within the boundaries of the platform’s guidelines
When we looked at accounts similar to those seen by children in Infinite Scroll shown above, we quickly found many other videos in the same genre. These videos appeared to mimic pornographic content, while staying within the boundaries of platform guidelines.
Examples of accounts on TikTok which mimic pornographic content