Teenagers bombarded with ‘sex’ comments
A Real Radio investigation has found young girls are being bombarded with lewd and sexually-explicit messages on social networking sites designed for teenagers.
We asked Ffion, a 14-year-old girl to set up an account on the Teenspot.com website, with the permission of her parents.
During just a handful of sessions on the social network, she was sent dozens of comments and messages – many of them sexual. Some users even sent their mobile phone numbers to her – or asked for private one-to-one chats.
Ffion, from Greater Manchester, said: “I think the site is quite unsafe. Anyone can go on it, they can lie about their age and then they can just say anything and upload any picture.
“I was quite alarmed by the comments. You wouldn’t expect it from some of the people which I hadn’t even met.”
Teenspot is based in America, but has two million users worldwide – hundreds of them from the UK.
Ffion began her investigation by setting up an account. There were no checks on her age and within seconds, she was able to access the site’s chatrooms, message boards and other people’s profiles.
Many girls – some as young as 13 – had uploaded pictures of themselves in various states of undress, many in underwear. The boys were just as bad, many showing off their chests and stomachs.
Other users were encouraged to post comments on the photos and many were extremely sexual.
Ffion uploaded a head and shoulders photograph of herself and a friend and immediately a male user labelled them ‘naughty pieces of trouble.’
But things turned sinister when she uploaded a fake photograph - taken off the internet - of a girl in her underwear. This photograph was typical of what other users were posting.
Immediately, she was bombarded with sexual comments which other users could also see. Despite her profile stating she was 14, she was also sent disturbing private messages.
One 19-year-old from Liverpool admitted that a girl like Ffion could ‘get a bloke like me into a lot of trouble.’ He went on to boast that he had a webcam.
When she investigated the chatrooms and added her age, sex and location as 14/Female/UK, five male users sent requests for private chats within seconds.
The site does warn users not to upload inappropriate pictures. But there are hundreds on there. Our reporter even found evidence of one member posting pictures of himself having sex.
Ffion’s dad Stuart said: “I was very shocked when I saw the sort of stuff that was being put on there and how sexually explicit it is.
He added: "It’s supposedly for 14-year-olds, but there are people on there who are 21 and above.”
Ffion’s profile was eventually banned for having an inappropriate photograph – but it took almost a month.
Teenspot’s owner Mike Brede reacted angrily when we approached him to take part in our Websafe campaign – accusing our reporter of posing as a 14-year-old to see what comments we could solicit.
We informed him that Ffion was a teenager and invited him to discuss internet safety. We are still awaiting a response.
Government Victims’ Champion Sara Payne is calling for such sites to toughen up their security or be shut down. She says all photographs uploaded to websites such as Teenspot should be vetted.
She said: “If they can’t monitor, then they shouldn’t have photos. It is as simple as that.”
