A shadowy blackmail ring is preying on young boys, using their nude videos as weapons of coercion and profit. This investigation by GODFREY GEORGE reveals how explicit content is secretly sold on X (formerly Twitter) to the highest bidder, often without the victims’ knowledge. With harrowing testimonies and hard evidence, this report, which took eighth months, exposes how tech platforms, societal silence, and fear of stigma enable this growing digital crime. It makes a case for urgent legal action, accountability and online protection of vulnerable youth
They are all boys, young, vulnerable, and full of promise. All teenagers. All Nigerian. Yet, with each passing day, their innocence is stripped away by adults who should know better, by adults who exploit their naivety and silence for profit and pleasure.
Their nude videos are being hawked and sold to the highest bidder without their consent or knowledge by sexual predators on X (formerly Twitter).
These accounts, posing as regular X users, post these nude pictures and videos, asking users to come into their Direct Message inboxes to transact business and purchase these sexually explicit videos of teenage boys pleasuring themselves.
How did these videos come about in the first place? Who are these boys? When did they make these videos? And why?
Haunted by teenage adventure
In October 2024, a young man in his 20s – name withheld – made a cryptic post on the social media platform Facebook, threatening to end his life over an ‘embarrassing episode that has continued to haunt him in his adult life’.
He stressed that a social media user was blackmailing him with ‘stuff’ that he did when he was ‘younger and naïve’ and asked to be forgiven.
A Facebook user, who is a friend of this reporter, shared the post with Sunday PUNCH, prompting an investigation.
The young man, now 27 and employed at an auditing firm in Lagos, alleged that someone on X was circulating his nude videos on the microblogging platform.
These were videos he made when he was 16 or 17; videos of him pleasuring himself.
His face was clearly visible, and people could still recognise and trace the videos back to him now as an adult.
“Why were the videos made in the first place?” this reporter asked. “And who were they originally meant for?” asked this reporter.
“I was young. I was stupid. I made them and sent them to someone I thought I was in love with. But somehow, some of our mutual friends got a hold of them.
“You know how these things are. Your lover, who is in another state, requests nude pictures and videos, and you send them, only to later find out that he shared them with someone else,” he replied.
“This happened a long time ago,” he emphasised. Yet, the question remains, how did videos from his teenage years resurface on X? Who is behind their redistribution and sale? Why the blackmail? And why has there been a persistent refusal to take the videos down despite alleged repeated pleas?
Uncovering the menace
To answer these questions, this reporter began the investigation on the microblogging site, X, and found over 12 active handles where teenage pornography featuring boys was being published and sold to the highest bidder.
One particularly notorious account, which our reporter later realised had been shut down several times, is @Hidden_Domain.
The tech expert hired by PUNCH for this report stated that the account had undergone several transformations in recent years.
He traced the posting model to a similar account, @Naija_teens, which was popular on X in 2022 and was flagged down by the micro-blogging site after some of the victims mass-reported the page.
The expert also linked it to another account, @Ikeja_Fucker, which was recently brought down by Twitter in 2024 for alleged violations and republishing of unauthorised explicit content.
The tech expert revealed that the same user may be responsible for the new account, operating under a fresh name and identity as Hidden Domain. This new account was opened in October 2024, our correspondent can confirm.
What is its job? According to its own profile statement, it is “for the purchase of Nigerian twink content”.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, a twink is an informal term (often derogatory) referring to ‘a young, attractive gay man with a slim, boyish appearance’.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines the word as a noun used among gay men to refer to ‘a gay or bisexual young man with a slim build and youthful appearance’.
A scroll through the X page revealed several short nude videos and pictures of young boys in their teenage years.
The videos, though disturbing, proved one thing: there is a thriving market for this kind of content on the dark web, and people are indeed purchasing these videos, primarily for sexual gratification through self-pleasure.
Global market with local victims
Across online platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), Reddit, Telegram, and various adult subscription services, there is evidence of an insatiable international market for African “twink” content.
The term, long used in Western gay pornography, is being co-opted to describe slim, youthful Black males, often between the ages of 14 and 21, who are featured in explicit material.
Some of this content is ‘consensual’; much of it is not.
Cybersecurity experts point to a growing number of cases where Nigerian and Ghanaian boys are blackmailed into sending nude videos, which are then sold, traded, or posted on fetish platforms.
Victims are often unaware that their images are being monetised by networks operating anonymously or under pseudonyms.
“We’re seeing a commodification of African bodies that is disturbingly reminiscent of colonial voyeurism, but now it’s digital,” said a social media researcher at the University of Cape Town, Dr Ama Boateng.
“These children are not only being exploited sexually, but also financially and emotionally.”
Investigations by global child protection watchdogs such as the Internet Watch Foundation and the United Nations Children’s Fund, reveal an alarming trend: teenage boys are often tricked by fake romantic accounts or offered money in exchange for nude videos.
Once they comply, the perpetrators threaten to leak the content unless more explicit material is sent or a fee is paid.
In many cases, the images and videos make their way to encrypted channels, anonymous adult sites, or private lists of fetish collectors.
While Western exploitation of Southeast Asian boys has long been documented, Africa now appears to be the new frontier for online predators.
Going underground
Determined to unmask the operator behind the account, this reporter created a new X profile using a fake email address, a process that took less than three minutes.
Without hesitation, he followed the account, @Hidden_Domain, and sent a direct message requesting to purchase one of the numerous nude videos openly posted on the platform.
As of the time of that request, posing as a sexually hungry user, this reporter on February 26, 2025, found over 26 videos on the site, all of young boys self-pleasuring with their faces in full view.
After studying the pattern and with the help of two adult content creators who did not want to be named in this report, our reporter messaged Hidden Domain.
“Please, I want to purchase some twink videos. Big di*k, wa*k and c*m,” wrote this reporter.
Hidden Domain wrote, “Firstly, you are in which country? (sic)”
“Nigerian teens, Africans, but mostly Nigerians. They tu*n me on,” replied this reporter.
Hidden Domain insisted on knowing what country this reporter was chatting from.
“Is this necessary? I will send the cash and you will get it. That is all that matters.
“Please, send me samples to pick from. I love them young, teenagers and with big di*ks. Wa*king and cu**ing,” replied this reporter.
Victims unveiled
Hidden Domain’s response shocked Sunday PUNCH’s investigation team.
“The samples are pictures of their faces. You make your choice and I’ll tell you the price.”
His intentions were clear: he posted these young boys as thirst traps, attracting buyers from around the world and selling the videos for a fee.
Determined to expose this injustice, our correspondent asked for photos of the boys to make his selection.
To the team’s shock, Hidden Domain sent over 50 pictures of young boys barely in their twenties, inviting the user to choose as many as he wanted.
As he sent the pictures, the advanced team, headed by social media content creator, Chim Nonso, and a tech expert and website developer who wished to remain anonymous, sprang into action to match the images with real social media accounts and confirm their last locations, using a geoinformatics tool.
By the end of the day, over a dozen faces were identified and linked to genuine users on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, prompting this reporter to begin reaching out to them.
Meanwhile, Hidden Domain had shared a total of 77 pictures, inviting the reporter to make his selections.
Some images were disturbingly clear, revealing boys barely into their teenage years.
As the conversation continued at 12:32 pm on 26 February, the reporter typed, “That’s almost 50 boys. Hold on. Let me choose. I hope they are all teens. I love them young. Very young.”
Hidden Domain replied, “Download and send a picture of your choice and I’ll tell you the price.”
It was again clear that the user was only concerned about the monetary gain.
This reporter insisted, “Again, I hope they are all teens. Remember my preference: Very young teenagers with big di*k, stroking their co*ks and cu**ing on camera.”
Hidden Domain’s response was a shocker. He wrote, “They are teens. Face and c*m clearly showing. Di*k sizes vary. I can point you in the direction of the ones with the biggest di*ks.”
After that message, Hidden Domain sent another set of 14 pictures of the teenagers with the biggest manhoods, stressing that their videos cost more than the ones with the average size.
After the pictures were sent, our reporter said, “I want ALL of them. ALL. 14.”
Hidden Domain’s response was even more shocking. He wrote, “That’s $36.00 each. $504.00 for all 14 of them.”
“That is around N700,000 for 14? Over N53,000 for one?” replied this reporter.
Hidden Domain replied, “You mustn’t buy all. And my market is for foreigners, not Nigerians.”
This, again, reinforced the global perspective of this trade and how the West and persons in the Diaspora, with the strength of the dollar, aid this global injustice.
Playing along, this reporter replied, “I didn’t say I was Nigerian or was in Nigeria. I only did a simple conversion to your currency. Send me your details. I will buy it all.”
Hidden Domain said, “Okay. After payment, you’ll drop your WhatsApp number and I’ll send the content to you there. WhatsApp is the only place I send content. Are you okay with that?”
Our correspondent insisted that the videos be shared via X, where the ‘transaction’ started, stressing that he was married and ‘his wife had access to his phone’, which was clearly a lie.
Hidden Domain retorted, “No, I don’t send content on X, only on WhatsApp.”
Our reporter replied, “You have too many rules, but fine. Send me your details. You can send your Nigerian account number. My assistant will do the transfer. She’s based in Nairobi.”
He shared his account details as follows – Account number: 0019947341, repository in a tier-one Nigerian bank with the name: Azinge Chukwunonso.
Who is Azinge Chukwunonso? Is he the same as Hidden Domain?
This reporter, through the help of an insider in the said bank, linked the account to a user based in Enugu State.
“The account user is based in Enugu State, from what I can see here, and he receives a lot of international wire. I cannot give you more than this, but I can assure you that he is in his 40s. He has a master’s degree, and from his last account update, is based in Enugu, Nigeria,” the source claimed.
All efforts to independently verify this claim yielded no results, as divulging personal details like photographs and other personal information of bank users is against Nigeria’s data privacy laws.
Finding the victims
That evening, this reporter contacted four more social media content creators with large followings on Facebook.
These creators, along with the tech team led by Nonso, previously mentioned, shared the screenshots with pictures of the young boys sent to our reporter by Hidden Domain, urging anyone with information about the boys, or the boys themselves, to come forward.
By nightfall, five of the boys had reached out to Nonso, who then referred them to this reporter. Another content creator, who requested anonymity, also shared Facebook links to individuals who had contacted him.
Using a secondary Facebook account with a modest following, this reporter was able to identify 12 additional victims.
By the end of the 72-hour window given for responses, the investigations team had gathered information on at least 26 individuals, either direct victims or relatives of the victims.
‘I was promised N1000 for my nudes’
The first user interviewed had just turned 19 on the day of the interview.
He admitted to having sent those videos to another young man, who had promised to send him some money in return.
“This was in 2023,” he said, “and the person blocked me without sending the cash. He promised me N1,000. I didn’t get the N1,000. I sent him five videos, which were supposed to earn me N5,000. He just blocked me.”
“In those videos, I was naked and pleasuring myself. He asked me to do what I did. It was like a specific request. I was just out of secondary school then, and I needed money, so I sent it.
“He promised it was between us, so imagine how shocked I am seeing that he had published it, or what are you guys saying? My mother will kill me if she sees this,” he cried.
Naively conscripted
As our correspondent was chatting with him, another survivor reached out via WhatsApp. Nonso, the tech lead, had shared the reporter’s contact details with those willing to connect through the platform.
He identified himself as Tony, a 19-year-old Computer Science student at a university in the South-West.
“I saw my picture in the Facebook post by Nonso and decided to reach out,” he said.
Our correspondent explained his findings and also sent pictures and videos of him pleasuring himself.
After almost three hours with no response, he sent, “How did you get these?”
Our correspondent shared the link to the X account. Tony said, “Sir, please, help me. These videos are recent. I remember sending them to someone on WhatsApp some months back.
“We were doing a nude exchange challenge. I didn’t know it would end up on X. Help me.”
Nonso immediately reached out with the phone number of an Instagram user who claimed to recognise his younger brother, just 16 years old, among the individuals identified.
The user later contacted this reporter on Facebook, sharing a photo of his brother and pleading, “This is my brother. What did he do? Please, talk to me.”
This reporter requested that the younger brother be brought into the conversation. It took another two days to arrange a conference call.
In the conversation, through the scolding by the elder brother and the tears of the victim, this reporter realised that there was a ring of men who exploit these young, vulnerable boys, take their nudes and publish them online for a fee.
Across the survivors who spoke to our correspondent, none of them were aware of this hidden trade, and none of them gave consent for their nude videos to be sold to the highest bidder online by Hidden Domain and other predators.
Fuelled by tech advancement
In a 2023 report, Amnesty International criticised X for its lack of effective moderation, stating: “The proliferation of underage content from Africa points to systemic failures in the company’s safety protocols.”
Meanwhile, Nigerian authorities admit to being technologically outpaced.
“We’re overwhelmed,” said a senior official in Nigeria’s Cybercrime Unit, who requested anonymity.
“These crimes are happening too fast, on too many platforms. Our laws were not designed for this scale or speed.”
Syndicate with nine lives
In 2022, when this reporter did a two-part undercover report to unearth the teenage pornography industry on x-rated sites, with the headline, “Traumatic tales of Nigerian teens whose s3x tapes are published, monetised on porn sites by ex-lovers”, the Nigerian authorities admitted that they were overwhelmed and promised to take down those videos.
The then head of the National Film and Video Censors Board, Adebayo Thomas, made sure those videos pinpointed by this reporter were taken down.
But this is a syndicate. Take down one, 50 more spring up. (Punch)
