Influencer Hetalo Santos, imprisoned since August after being reported for sexual exploitation of minors, said he produced cultural content about “bregafunk” in a statement submitted to the court, obtained by TV Globo and featured in yesterday’s edition of Fantástico. He also denied at the time that the recordings published on social media sites were of a “sexual nature” or “pornographic” content.
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– I have never recorded videos that contain pornographic or sexual scenes. We only recorded our routine with the peripheral culture, where I come from. Between Recife and João Pessoa, the most listened to beat today is bregafunk, whose dances and steps are seen from this perspective, but for people from the periphery and art, it is not so. – He said. – What we recorded was cultural.
The same story was repeated by the influencer’s husband, Israel Nata Vicente, who was also arrested:
– Our life was a family. When we started, neither he nor I had any money. Everyone loved dancing and we saw in this the possibility of coming out of scarcity, out of the hinterland and becoming someone in their life – said Israel in his testimony.
They were detained in Carapequipa, in Greater São Paulo, on August 15, and then transferred two weeks later to the Decimbargador Floscolo da Nobrega prison, in Paraíba. Last Friday, the Court of Justice of Paraíba (TJPB) rejected a new habeas corpus request for the two.
They are responsible for crimes of human trafficking, production of pornography, favoring prostitution and sexual exploitation of vulnerable people, the state Attorney General’s Office said. The case came to light after a complaint in a video posted by YouTuber Felipe Prisanem, known as Felca, about online adultery of minors, which reached 51 million views and rallied politicians to discuss new child protection rules on social media. Amid the repercussions of the case, in the following weeks the National Congress passed a law against adultery in digital environments.
Complaints against Hetalo and Israel
According to investigators, Hetalo focused his content on a group of young men (called “kids,” “girls,” and “in-laws”), several minors, living in a “mansion” under his informal guardianship. In his statement, the influencer denied that there were children under the age of 12 living in his house, but he said that at least four teenagers lived there. He also confirmed that he paid money to the parents of the minors.
When asked if he earned money from the published content, Hetalo denied this and said that his income came from advertisements and raffles he made, registered in the state lottery. He also claimed in his speech that his actions were monitored by the public prosecutor from Paraíba, who banned the execution of movements deemed explicit by the teenagers in the recordings and ordered the exclusion of certain videos from his profile. According to the MP, since 2024, the influencer has been the target of complaints, one issued in João Pessoa (PB) and the other in the municipality of Bayo (PB), where they lived.
According to information also obtained by Fantástico, the deputy also indicated that aesthetic procedures and tattoos of a sexual nature were also carried out, in addition to the strict control that the two exercised over the teenagers’ routine and means of communication. Speaking to the court, Hetalo confirmed that he had paid for a silicone procedure for one of the girls who lived with him, who was 16 years old at the time. But he claimed she was freed.
– I will never be free again from what they did to my image. Wherever I go now, I will be viewed as a child sexual abuser,” Hetalo said at the end of his testimony.