Voyeurs use apps to prey on children in bedrooms
PAEDOPHILES are targeting children as young as three in their bedrooms over live streaming apps.
The online computer programs allow youngsters to broadcast themselves to thousands of strangers in exchange for payment.
Voyeurs are able to send typed messages and are encouraged to ‘tip’ the ‘broadcasters’ with virtual gifts that can be swapped for cash.
Predictably, the unregulated apps have become a feeding frenzy for paedophiles.
Predators use the live streaming services – Live.me and Live.ly – and the video sharing app Musical.ly to approach naive young children, and send them obscene requests. They also ask them to talk privately over Skype or via mobile phone, or to meet face to face.
A Daily Mail investigation found that there were dozens of pre-teens on the Live. me platform, including a pair of girls who said they were nine and three.
Predators asked them about whether they had kissed boys before and whether they like to wear swimsuits.
The young girls were asked to show viewers their bedroom, and to do handstands, even though one of the girls was wearing only a T-shirt and knickers.
A Channel 4 investigation found that youngsters were also bombarded with requests to remove their clothes on the Live.ly app and on the Musical.ly app, where users share videos of themselves lip-synching to songs and other content.
In theory, all three apps demand that users are over the age of 13 and have their parents’ permission. But the companies do very little to police this. The Musical.ly and Live.ly apps ask users to verify their age themselves, but younger children can easily bypass this by entering a false date of birth.
Live.me users are simply asked to accept the app’s terms and conditions – a lengthy document with the age limit buried in it.
More than 170million people worldwide use the platforms, including an estimated three million in Britain.
John Carr, of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety, described the findings as ‘absolutely horrible’.
He added: ‘It is young girls being bombarded with requests, some of them quite obscene, disgusting.
‘Take your clothes off, do this, do that. Some of them might persuade the children to go off to another app or another space and arrange to meet them in real life so there’s no question that an app like this is going to be a magnet for paedophiles.’
A spokesman for Musical. ly, which owns Live.ly, said it takes its users’ safety very seriously. ‘Without question, this is a top priority for us as a company,’ he said.
‘Some of the measures we are actively working on include more stringent agegating, enhanced live moderation capabilities, and restricted video streaming access. We will continue to work with the internet safety community as we look for additional ways to promote an appropriate and positive environment on Live.ly.’
Live.me did not respond to requests for comment.
‘Obscene requests’