{"id":3411,"date":"2018-10-19T05:19:10","date_gmt":"2018-10-19T05:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/children-blackmailed-for-sexual-images-in-online-video-chats\/"},"modified":"2018-10-19T05:19:10","modified_gmt":"2018-10-19T05:19:10","slug":"children-blackmailed-for-sexual-images-in-online-video-chats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/children-blackmailed-for-sexual-images-in-online-video-chats\/","title":{"rendered":"Children ‘blackmailed’ for sexual images in online video chats"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"Laptop<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

A surge in the use of video chats and live-streaming among children is leaving them vulnerable to abuse, the NSPCC has warned, calling for a social network regulator to be introduced.<\/p>\n

A survey of 40,000 children aged seven to 16 found a quarter had used the services. On video chats, 10% had been asked to remove their clothes.<\/p>\n

The NSPCC says groomers can record the abuse and use it to blackmail victims.<\/p>\n

The home secretary has “demanded”<\/a> tech giants take online abuse seriously.<\/p>\n

One child, “Ben”, tried to take his own life after being blackmailed for sexual images shared between six men.<\/p>\n

It began when he was tricked into thinking he was speaking to a female friend-of-a-friend.<\/p>\n

Three weeks later, the person revealed himself to be a man, and – blackmailing him and threatening to kill his parents – coerced Ben into sending sexual images and performing sex acts live over video chat.<\/p>\n

‘I felt helpless’<\/h2>\n

“This man had spent weeks pretending to be a girl and finding out information about every part of his life,” Ben’s father told the Victoria Derbyshire programme.<\/p>\n

“He knew who his family were – nans, brothers, sisters.<\/p>\n

“He knew what school Ben went to. Everything. They find out everything to use this information to manipulate you.”<\/p>\n

The images and videos sent by Ben to the man were then shared with five other men, who bombarded Ben with further demands.<\/p>\n

“He just felt helpless and didn’t know what to do,” his father said. “He was a different child but we didn’t know why.”<\/p>\n

After two years of meeting these demands, Ben attempted to take his own life – leading the abuse to be uncovered. The main perpetrator was later jailed for four-and-a-half years.<\/p>\n

The family says the effect has been devastating.<\/p>\n

“You don’t see it coming,” his father said. “And when it does, your world falls apart and it’s so hard to get that back to how you were – to a really close, loving [family], doing everything together.<\/p>\n

“He won’t go out, he doesn’t play sport anymore. He’s not the child he was.”<\/p>\n

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Image copyright<\/span>
\n Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n

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Image caption<\/span>
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\n Some 19% of primary school children surveyed had live-streamed
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The NSPCC survey – the first of its kind – suggests use of video chats and live-streaming among children has risen rapidly.<\/p>\n

Some 29% of secondary school children have broadcast themselves online according to the findings – almost three times a previous estimate, by Ofcom, that suggested one in 10 children aged 12 to 15 had live-streamed.<\/p>\n

The charity said the rise was likely to be down to the introduction of live-streaming capabilities on some of the biggest social media platforms.<\/p>\n

The NSPCC said it was now calling on the government to create an independent regulator to force social networks into introducing measures that make children safer.<\/p>\n

Of the children surveyed who had video-chatted with someone they had not met, one in 10 had been asked to get undressed.<\/p>\n

Some 19% of primary school children surveyed had live-streamed, with 8% of those saying that another person live-streaming was semi-naked at the time.<\/p>\n

One girl, aged 10-11, told the charity: “My friend was doing a live-stream and an adult man was asking for her to video request him, so she did and he showed his private parts.”<\/p>\n

Another girl, aged 11-12, said while on video chat “this man was pulling, touching, and showing his privates”.<\/p>\n

‘Really disturbing’<\/h2>\n

Peter Wanless, NSPCC chief executive, said the popularity of live-streaming meant children were “being pressured into going along with situations that make them feel uncomfortable. <\/p>\n

“What’s really disturbing is that groomers can then screenshot or record live-streamed abuse, and use it to blackmail the child or share it with others.”<\/p>\n

In September, Home Secretary Sajid Javid warned he would “not be afraid to take action” against tech giants if they did not help to tackle child sexual abuse online.<\/p>\n

Mr Javid said he was “demanding” companies take “more measures” – or face new legislation.<\/p>\n

He added that some sites were refusing to take online abuse seriously – and highlighted live-streaming of child abuse as a growing problem.<\/p>\n

Watch the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 BST on BBC Two and the BBC News channel in the UK <\/strong>and on iPlayer afterwards.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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A surge in the use of video chats and live-streaming among children is leaving them vulnerable to abuse, the NSPCC has warned, calling for a social network regulator to be introduced. A survey of 40,000 children aged seven to 16 found a quarter had used the services. On video chats, 10% had been asked to … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}