A report drawn up by SaferNet, an NGO active in promoting human rights online since , found that 1. One of these communities aloneโwhich was still active when the survey was madeโhad thousand users. He is at liberty, but cannot leave the country.
The report was produced after a search of Telegram links reported to SaferNet by internet users as containing images of child sexual abuse and exploitation. SaferNet analyzed them and found that of them were still active and had not been restricted by the platform. In addition, the NGO identified a further 66 links that had never been reported before and which also contained criminal content. Of these links, were still active during the months in which the verification took place July through September.
Of these active links, we found 41 groups in which it was proven there was not only distribution of child sexual abuse images, but also buying and selling. In Brazil, the Statute of the Child and Adolescent defines the sale or exhibition of photos and videos of explicit sex scenes involving children and adolescents as a crime. It is also a crime to disseminate these images by any means and to possess files of this type.
SaferNet also discovered that some of the content is published by bots or sold using cryptocurrencies as payment, which makes it even more difficult to identify criminals. The payment is made via [instant payment] PIX or using fintechs or payment processors spread across 23 countries. Telegram is the messaging app with the highest number of reports received by SaferNet. Since , it has also been one of the ten domains with the most links associated with child pornography that have been reported to the NGO.
Telegram has been the target of complaints for years for not removing Brazilian communities and users who commit crimes such as racial discrimination, attacks on democracy, apology for Nazism, or the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents. Telegram allows users to report criminal content, channels, groups or messages. This can be done by emailing abuse telegram.
