The Secretary of State for Children will report to the courts facts of exposure of minors to pornography and pedocrime on Omegle, an American messaging platform very popular with college students, announced his cabinet on Wednesday April 27 . This American anonymous instant messaging website allows strangers to chat via camera.
This decision follows the publication by the site Kool Mag, an online parenting magazine for fathers, of an investigation denouncing the presence of mature exhibitionists on this platform very popular with young people.
The founder of Kool Mag, Baptiste des Monstiers, says he surfed the site on a Wednesday afternoon and met dozens of children and teenagers aged 9 to 15, looking for new friends. He also saw, likely to come into contact with these children, “dozens of men masturbating, showing off, some disguised as women wearing women’s underwear”.
Accessible on computer and telephone, the site just asks the user to confirm that he is over 13, without verifying it. Launched in 2009, Omegle has attracted an increasing number of minors since confinement and has one million visitors in France per month, according to Kool Mag.
“Many youtubers offer their fans to talk to them directly on the Omegle site. Basically: ‘I connect, come and with a bit of luck, we will meet’. A kind of big wheel of fortune on which you can meet dozens of cranks and exhibitionists hanging around the site”accuses Baptiste des Monstiers.
In the “Community Guidelines” published on its English site, Omegle states that “nudity, pornography and sexually explicit behavior and content are prohibited” in the sections of its services subject to moderation.