![]() ![]() Police investigations traced over 80 victims. This was then used to blackmail the girls to commit further sexual acts for him via webcam. Leonard used Habbo Hotel to befriend youngsters who he then persuaded to go off the site, in return for free “furniture” for their room, which would normally cost users money.įrom there, the girls were persuaded to strip and show themselves on webcams. One, Matthew Leonard, was recently jailed for seven years – one of the longest prison sentences of this kind due to the nature of the case. We investigated, and found two recent cases where two paeodphiles have been convicted for sexually abusing dozens of kids who they befriended on Habbo Hotel. We made further inquiries about Habbo Hotel and found that it is more than kids who have been role-playing on the site. I comment here /blog/entries/pâ?¦ User safety my top priority. These moderators cover all time-zones and the multiple languages in which Habbo users Channel4News paraicobrien Very concerned abt incidents reported by C4. He added: “Habbo’s moderation and safeguarding procedures includes employing more than 225 moderators, tracking some 70m lines of conversation globally every day on a 24/7 basis. “We also provide education and rapid-response support to users who experience uncomfortable conversations.” In a statement, Paul LaFontaine, the chief executive of Sulake, the company which owns the website, told Channel 4 News it is committed to ensuring that children are safe on the site: “Any online community that allows users to assume virtual identities may be open to abuses, which is why we work hard to keep users safe, filtering content and blocking inappropriate users. If they are in this business, they have to be in it in the right way – the right moderators, the right software, to stop this happening.” “Businesses shouldn’t put children at risk. What I’ve just seen makes me think this is a dangerous place for youngsters to be. “If I was a parent of an 11-year old girl on this site, I would want there to be a moral panic. There should be the equivalent of the virtual fire-brigade jumping in on this, but it’s not happening. ![]() “Here’s someone aged 11 being asked to leave the site. This is very worrying and going in a very bad direction. John Carr told us: “A moderator should be jumping in right now as it’s not hard to see where this is going before it gets a lot worse. Within minutes we were sent a friend request from an avatar called DirtyBoii who soon messaged our avatar, “Can I ask u what yr body’s like”. We played the game at 4.30 in the afternoon. When we played the game with one of the world’s leading experts on child safety, John Carr, we were soon being asked to move away from the game and onto Skype or MSN. Read more: Striptease and cyber sex: my stay at Habbo Hotel Rachel played the game 50 times and on each occasion had similar experiences. “Within two minutes I was being asked individually ‘do you have a webcam?’, ‘can we chat on (instant messenger service) MSN, on Skype?’ I was also, within a couple of minutes, asked to strip, fully naked, and asked what would I do on a webcam.” Rachel said: “The chat was very sexual, perverse, violent, pornographic, overtly sexual acts, people saying they were going to do things to others, and it was very graphic. The ease with which this happened was shocking. She found alongside the balloons and teddies, chats and interactions of an explicit sexual nature. Independent producer Rachel Seifert spent two months playing this seemingly innocent game posing as a young girl. In response, we have taken this product off sale, pending further investigation.” WH Smith did the same, saying: “”We were concerned to learn of the allegations about Habbo Hotel made in the Channel 4 News report. The cards can be used to buy furniture for the users online “rooms” in the hotel. Tesco has revealed that following our investigation it will no longer stock gift cards for the site in its stores. ![]() We know from our own research that youngsters of nine play on Habbo Hotel. However, Channel 4 News found the site to be full of pornographic sexual chat, despite the fact it is aimed at children as young as 13 years old. The game is set in a virtual hotel, where kids create avatars with which they can move around rooms, chat to other users in public or privately and even buy credits in the real world to furnish their virtual hotel room. And with 10 million unique visitors a month, it is “the world’s largest social game and online community for teenagers”. Seemingly innocent, Habbo Hotel, with its bright colours, pink teddy bears, flashing lights, and roaming ponies, is one of a growing number of virtual worlds created for kids. ![]()
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