TRIGGER WARNING: The following article contains screenshots of sexual messages and photos received on a test National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) account. Images have been censored but are still suggestive.
A “12-year-old girl” created a Kik account. She was fairly new to social media, so she was a bit nervous. Because of this, she made her username “Im12BeNice.”
Immediately, she began receiving messages from various strangers.
Her first message: “just hopped out of the shower, drying off <3”
Her second: “lets do a live call masturbating”
Her third: A nude photo.
Her fourth: A photo of someone taking off their underwear, with a link “take-me-today”
Her sixth: A nude photo.
And so on and so forth. Below are screenshots of just some of the messages received to the “Im12BeNice” account.
Fortunately, this account did not truly belong to a 12-year-old girl. It was a NCOSE employee impersonating one.
But countless real children are having these kinds of experiences on Kik. In fact, for the past five years, Kik has been either the #1 or #2 most flagged app for children being exposed to severe sexual content, as reported by Bark.
Kik has been on NCOSE’s Dirty Dozen List in previous years for rampant child sexual exploitation, fueled by the app’s dangerous design and inadequate safety measures. The last time Kik was on the List, they appeared to implement several of our recommendations. We celebrated this, hoping it would be a turning point for safety on the app.
But as time has passed, it’s become abundantly clear: Kik’s apparent safety changes were not what they seemed to
be. Today, the app still remains a predator’s paradise.
Ongoing Child Sexual Exploitation on Kik
When a NCOSE employee made a test Kik account with an innocuous username (harrietmwelsch2008), she did not receive any messages. However, when she made an account with the username “Im12BeNice,” the sexual solicitations began flooding in within seconds. Reporters we have spoken to have also shared receiving sexual messages when they created accounts that advertised being a minor.
This seems to suggest that children are specifically targeted on Kick for sexual solicitation—in other words, grooming for sexual exploitation.
When a NCOSE employee made a test Kik account with an innocuous username (harrietmwelsch2008), she did not receive any messages. However, when she made an account with the username “Im12BeNice,” the sexual solicitations began flooding in within seconds. Reporters we have spoken to have also shared receiving sexual messages when they created accounts that advertised being a minor.
This seems to suggest that children are specifically targeted on Kick for sexual solicitation—in other words, grooming for sexual exploitation.
Further, we continue to see news headlines on a regular basis of child sexual exploitation on Kik. Here are a few stories from just the last couple months:
- June 2, 2026: A repeat sex offender was sentenced to 15 years in prison after sharing numerous files of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on Kik. The abuse material depicted prepubescent children, including infants and toddlers.
- May 20, 2026: An Oregon man pled guilty to causing a child to self-produce CSAM and sharing the CSAM on Kik.
- April 2026: A 21-year-old man used his Kik account to solicit minors for sex acts and share CSAM, including of infants.
- April 2026: A former Nanaimo teacher was arrested for uploading numerous CSAM files to Kik, depicting children being abused by adult men and animals.
Despite 18+ Policy, Kik Has No Age Verification and Allows Obvious Minor Accounts
When Kik was on the Dirty Dozen List, NCOSE urged them to become an 18+ platform with robust age verification to enforce that age limit. While Kik did raise its professed age limit to 18+ (17+ on app stores), they only use age verification in the UK, where they are compelled to by law. The fact that Kik uses age verification in the UK shows that they can do it—but they choose not to in all other markets where they’re not strictly required to by law.
Kik clearly has no intention of identifying and removing minor accounts when usernames like “Im12BeNice” were allowed. Even more disturbingly, the NCOSE employee attempted several usernames professing to be a minor, and was told repeatedly that those usernames were taken. Exactly how many minors are clearly advertising their age on this 18+ platform, while Kik does nothing?
Further, the fact that Kik presents itself as an 18+ platform lets it off the hook for having any parental controls. So, children are still easily able to create accounts while their parents have no way of keeping them safe.
Kik Still Connects Users with Strangers
One of the most dangerous features NCOSE asked Kik to remove was the “Meet New People” feature. This was based on the absurd premise of pairing any user, including minors, with a complete stranger with whom to start conversations.
Well, Kik did remove that feature … but they simply replaced it with another stranger-connection tool. “Meet New People” was replaced with “Kik-it,” which also puts users in private chats with strangers. After 15 minutes of talking, the user is prompted to add the stranger as a friend, or else the chat will end. Kik is essentially using time limits to pressure people to add strangers as friends, which would allow the stranger to bypass any privacy settings that a user may have set up.
Kik’s Sexual Content Filters Do Not Work
One of the changes we previously celebrated was Kik automatically turning on explicit content filters for all accounts. Yet time has shown that this filter does not work in the slightest. All the sexual messages and nude photos the fake 12-year-old account received were with the explicit content filter on.
An NBC reporter we recently spoke to also shared that her fake account “was immediately served pages of sexually explicit activity despite not having had any prior engagement with the platform.”
This tracks with Bark repeatedly finding Kik to be the #1 or #2 most flagged platforms for children being exposed
Further, Kik claimed that it had started monitoring livestreams for nudity and inappropriate content. However, a quick scan of the livestream section shows that a high percentage were clearly still intended to be sexually enticing.
Kik Does NOT Require a Verified Email—or Any Verification
In 2023, Kik claimed that it would now require verified email addresses to make account. Although this was bare minimum security, we celebrated it. But once again, this safety measure is not functioning as promised. A NCOSE employee was able to create a Kik account with an entirely fictional email address.
Kik requires no personal information or verification to create an account. They don’t even require a profile picture. This is all part of their “anonymity” that they are proud to tout. But the unfortunate truth is, anonymous apps like Kik are hotspots for people looking to groom children, trade child sexual abuse material, or otherwise engage in illegal activity.
One convicted sex offender went so far as to call Kik a “predator’s paradise.” And after what we’ve seen, we have to agree.
ACTION: Call on Congress to Pass the Kids Online
The Senate version of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) would require tech platforms likely to be accessed by children to take reasonable care in preventing foreseeable harms, such as child sexual exploitation. Please urge your representative to support this crucial bill, so that platforms like Kik will be incentivized to take child sexual exploitation seriously.
HOUSE: https://www.house.gov
SENATE: https://www.senate.gov