In March, the BBC Eye Investigates series released a podcast documentary about pimping of Kenyan girls and young women on TikTok. The heartbreaking expose detailed how people with large following on the platform- specifically men- lure the desperate girls to their livestreaming sessions with the promise of earning money. TikTok requires that an account has 1,000+ followers to run livestreaming sessions.

The girls, out of the need for an income, take part in explicitly inappropriate dances to parade their bodies. In return, the followers leave gifts as they get entertained which are definitely taken by the owner of the account. This leaves the girls at the mercy of the owner and TikTok which has to deduct fees against the value of the gifts.

Most of the girls are in the end linked up with the followers offline to continue the illicit affairs. Two girls who were interviewed for the documentary expressed the tragedy of the encounter which they ended up not being paid anything substantial, facing harassment and intimidation from the pimps and being sexually exploited.

This is the sad reality of digital spaces especially social media for girls and women in Kenya and Africa. They are exposed, out of naivety and despair to technology facilitated sexual and gender based violence.

Poverty is a major driver making the girls and young women view digital spaces as easy way out to earn money. Others are driven by the pressures of opulent lifestyles displayed on these spaces by peers who parade a sense of easy success.

With little control especially in platforms like TikTok on what can be displayed and easy maneuver to conceal age, the girls become easy targets. TikTok is the most accessible social media platform and reports indicate that it is used in Kenya by kids as young as 9 years old. At such an age, most of these users lack necessary knowledge and information to be safe from digital exploitation.

Women and girls are highly prone to the attacks ranging from trolling, deep fake pornography and sexual exploitation and trafficking enabled by their exposure to the platforms. According to a rapid study in 2024 by UNFPA and research partners, nearly 90% of young adults enrolled in Nairobi’s tertiary institutions have witnessed technology-facilitated gender-based violence, with 39% having experienced it personally.

These sexual and gender based violence are just mirrored by what goes on offline. Women and girls still face multiple violence in their homes, workplaces, school and communities.

According to the 2022 Kenya National Bureau of Statistics Survey (KNBS), 34% of Kenyan women have experienced physical violence since age 15, with 16% facing it in 2021. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a 2020 report by UN women and KNBS revealed that 23% of urban women and 21% of rural women experienced physical violence within their homes, often inflicted by family or friends.

With such alarming statistics which are now exacerbated by technology, feminist movement needs to close the gap between gender justice and digital rights activism. These aspects of feminist rights are still treated separately with digital rights taking very insignificant priority.

Feminist platforms like CSW and partners like UNGA need to urgently establish stronger laws that combat tech facilitated SGBV. These will then be cascaded to national and regional laws to curb the menace in countries.

Girls and women from all social backgrounds and regions should be urgently empowered to participate in the technology industry and actively take part in the design and use of safe digital tools and spaces. This will create role models and relatable figures from girls and women in peripheral communities. With more women in high decision making positions in tech industries, both laws and actions against technology facilitated SGBV will take higher precedence and pushed for implementation by industry players and users for stronger safety measures.

Harmful social norms that are being mirrored through technology especially those that hypersexualize women and girls through images need to be confronted and technologies trained to display women with dignity. Trolling and deep fake pornography are directly related to offline acts of violence against women based on their dress code and body figures which is interpreted suggestively through patriarchal views such as male gaze. With the use of technology, women's images are either shared in real sense or generated by AI for viral circulation online.

The feminist movement should be tough on taking tech companies to account for their lax rules which have aided SGBV towards girls and women. From the documentary , it is clear that moderation of content on TikTok in Kenya is very weak . An interviewee who works for a company contracted to do the moderation revealed that the exercise is only done during the day. This leaves a window at night for explicit content to run without supervision. The girls who were interviewed actually confessed to having done the livestreaming at night.

The use of AI instead of human moderators and fact checkers has also resulted in very high inaccuracies giving way for the use of most platforms to run inappropriate content. In such instances, the offensive content remains online making it accessible to any user and even sharable in different platforms. One of the girls who were interviewed by BBC for the documentary, intimated that, her video from the livestreaming was shared multiple times in different social media platforms until it reached her neighbors. This caused untold embarrassment and isolation in the community. She is still battling mental health breakdown arising from the isolation with no one to talk to.

Just as the feminist movement is working to curb ordinary SGBV and other harmful social norms against women and girls, it is becoming more important to mainstream the war against digitally facilitated violence of all forms into the actions and advocacy points of the movement. This will stop the vices and ensure that, access to digital tools and services are safe for girls and women to participate adequately and meaningfully.

Happy and safe Girls in ICT Day 2025