Perverts tried to groom me when I posed as child of 13
A WOMAN who posed as a child in an internet chat room was sent sexually explicit messages within minutes.
Hannah Stanley decided to see how easy it is to attract online predators after a young relative received explicit messages from suspected paedophiles.
The 19-year-old from Criccieth said she was shocked at how quickly perverts started trying to talk her into carrying out sexual acts on the #1 Chat Avenue website.
One man asks her what she’s wearing, if she’s “making boys happy”, and if there’s a camera on her laptop.
Hannah said: “When (my relative) showed me some of the messages she’d received, I knew it was not the right place for children.
“Luckily she is quite old for her age and knew not to reply, but there are plenty of youngsters out there who would be easily taken in and so I had to do something to raise awareness.
“I went into the ‘teen chat’ forum and it was full of older men with their conversations quickly progressing into something more sexual.”
She added: “For everyone who messaged me, I made sure I told them several times I was 13. But they didn’t care at all, they continued trying to groom the 13-year-old me.
“Some were still asking me to take my clothes off, perform sexual acts and go on webcam. I was shocked and horrified at how easily it was for them to make contact.”
The site gives users options to take part in various chats, including adult, boys, girls, dating, gay, lesbian, live and camera chat.
Hannah said: “Teen chat specifies that you must be aged between 13 and 19, however there seems to be no monitoring of who is on which chat room and it is very easy to lie about your age – it’s frightening.
“I just wanted to warn teenagers and their parents about these forums – I don’t think it’s a very safe place.”
Sister paper The Daily Post has attempted to contact Chat Avenue for a response.
Their website states: “This site is for general audiences but you MUST be 13 or over to participate in the chat rooms...
“This site is extremely safe when you follow the Chat Safety. #1 Chat Avenue does its best to supply its users with a safe environment for chatters of all ages.
“The rooms are staffed by volunteer moderators who may or may not be present in the chat room at the time of your use.
“Please remember that a child’s safety is the responsibility of the child’s parents.”
Urging people to report any violations of the rules, it adds: “We will cooperate fully with any accredited law enforcement agency to catch users exploiting other users in our chat rooms.”