Live, Streaming Website Poses Online Dangers:
Back when I first posted about Stickam I had the feeling that its unmonitored webcam chats would make MySpace look like an ice cream social. Unfortunately, it seems I was right…
If you haven’t heard of Stickam, chances are, your kids have. It’s another social networking site, much like MySpace, Friendster or Xanga, but this site goes further.
Users stream their webcameras live and connect with other people’s webcameras. You could see and hear everything in real time. What happens here should concern every parent. We want to warn you, some of the material in this story may be inappropriate for young kids.
One recent afternoon, the News 4 WOAI Trouble Shooters logged onto Stickam curious about what we would find there.
Stationed halfway across the world, we found men who say they are army soldiers. They were apparently looking to make some new friends online.
They had just connected with a young woman on her Stickman webpage. We won’t reveal her face or screen name, because according to what she wrote in her chats with other Stickam users, she is only 12-years-old.
The guys are having a good time. They are dancing, singing, and chatting with that 12-year-old girl they don’t know.
Through their live webcam, they show her a bottle of what looks to be alcohol and a pill.
Just a few minutes into their online chat, they asked her to expose herself. They also said they have something to show her. Things were about to get worse.
Stickam has posted a warning on its site, saying sexually explicit content is “prohibited.” That didn’t seem to matter to the soldiers chatting with the 12-year-old girl. Just minutes into their live webcamera chat, one of the men exposed himself to the girl and to all the other users looking in on her chat room.
She seemed to laugh it off and the men continue to say lewd things to her, while other people logged into the chatroom try to shield the young girl.
One user wrote: “she’s a child.”
Another wrote: “are u (sic) aware (the girl’s) parents are cops?”
A third person claimed to be videotaping the whole thing. That person later backed off and admitted he didn’t videotape it. But we did. An Army spokeswoman has asked for all of our findings to send to the Criminal Investigation Division.
You should really watch the video attached to the article to get the full effect.
I can’t stress this enough that if you have underage kids please monitor their online activity. Place the computer in the living room or another common area. Don’t rely on a website to babysit your kids. Stickam has already banned 4500 users for inappropriate use of their site. Just imagine how many more they’re not catching since they don’t police their site.
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