Idea that she would be matched with a paedophile. He had ill intentions, evil intentions. I was consistently being forced to do things that a child should not have to do. Omegle is a Hunting Ground for predators. Any time that ive beeni on omegle, a very High Percentage of it is. For a sexual purpose. There is, 100 , definitely a dark side to omegle. Omegle is quoted in dozens of cases against predators the world over. But now, alice is fighting back. This will be the first case that is against a social media company. Were holding them liable for their own product operations. No comment, but feel free to email us questions. For years, the sites elusive owner has ignored calls for change. Can we finally track him down . Mr brooks, we just want to ask you some questions. Its about your website, mr brooks. Its about omegle. I was reallyjust like any other child. I was always an a student. Everything on my marks from teachers was always about how i was so sociable and a pleasure to have in class. I think i lived a relatively normal, happy childhood. How did you first learn about this website . I learned through friends. People went on it as, sort of, a game of sorts. What, like, in a Group Situation . Social setting, yes. Like, Slumber Parties, that kind of thing . Yes, a social setting, Slumber Parties type thing. And then, discovered it more on my own as i kind of got older. A lot of people knew about it, but nobody knew the harm that it was doing. Omegle is a free website, and it basically lets you match with anyone across the world, completely across the world. They could be from the us, they could be from canada, they could be from mexico. 19 year old fabio makes Popular Videos about omegle. Hes got more than half a million followers across social media platforms, with fans tuning in to watch his edgy pranks and sometimes controversial chats on the site. You can have a conversation with them and, if at any point you no longer want to continue the conversation, all you have to do is press one button, and thats it, theyre gone. The site has been a notorious place for random encounters for mostly teenagers for over a decade. During the pandemic, it exploded in popularity, with videos about it going viral on tiktok and youtube. Its remained popular since and in fact, has grown to around 73 million visits a month, according to analysts at semrush. Around 15 Million People from india are logging on a month, 13 million in the us, and millions of others are visiting from mexico, the uk, and australia. So, what are some of the ages of people that youve met . Sometimes youlljust be going through, and youll literally see a child on there, literally like a seven, eight years old child, just sitting there trying to talk to you, and its very weird. And sometimes youll meet someone whos about 60, 70, even 80 years old, just a bunch of old people who want to go on there. Omegle is free, and was launched in 2009 by 18 year old leif brooks. It started off as just text, then introduced video in 2011. It makes money through advertising, mostly for porn websites. There is, 100 , definitely a dark side to omegle. It does get very weird, especially late at night. Things ive personally seen is, you know, itsjust Men Pleasuring themselves, playing with themselves on there. Theyjust do it where they know that theres young girls on there, young boys on there, and they do it to show them people, and i guess, like, they like that or something. The site is moderated, but i dont really know whats going on half the time, to be honest. Like its, it gets crazy. The dark side to omegle is well documented. I carried out an investigation into the site in 2021, and twice witnessed pre pubescent boys engaging in Sexual Behaviour incidents that we didnt record and reported to police. The story led to calls from the United Nations for changes to the website. Two years earlier, a paedophile from rural canada called ryan fordyce was convicted after police discovered hed been using omegle to find victims. Im constable pam klassen. Im a 19 year member of the Brandon Police service. Were located in brandon, manitoba, canada. So, ive been working for the past ten years, i ive been the Digital Forensics examinen i located an ip address out. Of brandon that was sharing these child sexual abuse materials, and then i was able to get a Search Warrant so that i could search his home. So, we went to his house and, at the time, only his wife was home. We explained why we were there, and i was able to get onto the computer, and i was able to locate the child sexual abuse materials. We knew that he was i coming home for lunch, and when he came home, i had found the materialsl at that point, and i advised i him that he was under arrest for accessing and distributing child pornography. He was surprised. His wife was surprised, as well. He had two kids, teenagers. Fordyce had seven folders on his computer, all with a Different Girls name. One of them was called alice. It contained 220 images and videos of her when she was between 11 and 1a. I spent a huge chunk of my childhood in this, being forced to do things that a child should not have to do. Every day, being at the will of someone else who had the worst of intentions with children. So, with alice, i had no idea where in the world she was. J she couldve been anywhere | she couldve been in australia, she couldve been in the uk, | she couldve been in canada. And i found pictures of her in front of a certain landmark in the united states. And i also found another picture of her where she was wearing an outfit from school that had the initials of the school and a logo on the shirt. | and i was able to reach out to the Law Enforcement agency there, and they were able to find her. Felt like the world froze. And everything stopped. And. My parents crumbling to the ground, like any parent would. Ryan fordyce was sentenced to eight years in prison. It was discovered that hed used omegle to meet three of his victims, including alice. His playbook was similar in each case get matched at random with a child, groom them, and convince them to hand over private details so that he could carry on talking to them on messaging apps. Well, if you have a platform that gives paedophiles practice, how can he not be an expert at what hes doing . Each time, seeing what works and what doesnt. Its a practice field. Ijust, unfortunately, i was on the latter end of it. Theres a community of predators and paedophiles that thrive off of omegle. They use it as a way to access Children Repetitively and consistently. Often, i was sent back to, in a sense, recruit more. As if it was a cult. Recruit more children . More children. So you were a child . You were 12 13, or something . Mm hm. And he would say, i want you to go back on. And find more. And find more. I was consistently trying to fake information, fake the content to not put anyone else through what i was going through. What sort of things was he saying to you, to try and persuade you that you had no choice . That this was all my fault. And i think, unfortunately, so many children have been in this position, will be in this position, as long as theres not active change. Alice is Suing Omegle In A Landmark Case against a social media company. Shes hired a new York Law Firm thats known for going after tech giants. They specialise, according to the website, in cutting edge litigation against Big Tech And Powerful Predators at work, home, school, and online. I founded this firm to become the attorney that i needed when i was under attack by a scary, abusive ex who was threatening me online and offline. I couldnt find a lawyer who would take what happened to me seriously. Hello. Hey hi, how are you doing . Carrie launched the omegle lawsuit in 2021, but her team has been in close contact with alice for years. And most of our clients are people whove been the victim of some sort of Sexual Violence or gender based abuse. Our case is so much about alice and her abuser, but for every one fordyce, we can assume that there are hundreds and thousands of more of him. Omegle is a hunting i ground for predators. It invites children and adults to be matched randomly and privately, and anonymously for chatting. What would you say to people who think that its up to parents to stop their children going on websites like this . I would say theyre wrong. I would say that theres absolutely no way that anybody can account for their childs use of technology 24 7. More so, people dont know about omegle, parents dont know what this is. And it quite literallyl encourages them to, quote unquote, talk to strangers. Alices suit, known as am v omegle, is likely to be one of, if not the first time a Tech Platform is put on trial for the way its built. These so called Product Liability lawsuits are a growing trend, and a potential new way for Social Networks to be held accountable for their alleged wrongdoings. In the last year, there have been over 100 cases filed against meta, snap, youtube, tiktok and theyre all Product Liability cases. Alices case has been really, really instrumental in arguing for these other platforms to be liable. Its like, everyones waiting for this outcome. Everyones watching the alice case . Yeah. In the united states, we have section 230 of the Communications Decency act, which makes it incredibly difficult to ever sue an online platform. It was originally intended to make it difficult to sue a platform for defamation, but its been interpreted to make it difficult to sue them for anything whether its child sexual exploitation, revenge porn. But we, a few years ago, brought a case against a different platform, saying, lets start treating these asjust basic products. Lets look at them as, you know, if somebody gets injured, lets look at if there was a defect in the design or the coding that made this harm happen. You know, as soon as the platform realised that this is how it was being used, then it had the duty to innovate, you know, whether through Age Verification or some other means, they needed to fix their product. But before the case can progress, a hurdle. Alice and her legal team are preparing for another hearing, as omegle is claiming that it cant be sued in a Product Liability case as its a service, not a product. In three days time, carrie and her team need to convince a judge, or the lawsuit is over. She said theres no platform. And its notjust legal circles watching the case closely. Child Protection Agencies have repeatedly called for changes to be made to omegle, but have been ignored. Im tamsin mcnally, im the Hotline Manager at the internet watch foundation. So, the internet watch foundations aim is to remove child sexual abuse material that is posted on publicly accessible areas of the internet. The iwf says its attempted to speak to omegles owner, leif brooks, about changes he could make to the site to protect children. Hes never responded. I can tell you that the analysts upstairs, they see content related to omegle about 20 times a week on average. We see it being discussed a lot as a platform for offenders to use. One way offenders like to entice these children is kind of by playing a game could be one point for waving at the camera or smiling, and then it gets more and more kind of severe. We found this omegle sex game being shared online. Its creator did not respond to our questions. With all these images and videos that you and your staff see here, how do you cope when you see something that really stops you in your tracks . There will always be an image or a video you see that kind of makes you stop for a second and go, i just cant believe this is happening. Like, i saw a video a couple of days ago, and it was two boys in their bathroom together and from what i can tell, it looked like they were brothers. And then, they were being asked to. Do activities with each other. And itsjust really, really sad to see. But worst of all is that the children have no idea. Theyve got no idea how many other offenders around the world are looking at those images of them, and how many times those images are being sold. Omegle has been cited as a tool for predators in dozens of charges and convictions of paedophiles. In the last two years alone, its quoted in 50 cases we found. There are cases in spain, argentina, australia, france, four in the uk, more than 20 in the us thats just in the last couple of years. And its notjust omegle thats mentioned on these charge sheets, of course, there are other platforms like snapchat that frequently come up. But if you think about the size of snapchat, hundreds of millions of users a month compared to that of omegle, Tens Of Millions of users a month it does seem that this website is disproportionately problematic. Ive asked leif brooks for an interview multiple times in the past two years. Hes never accepted. So, we travelled to florida to try to speak to him directly. The one question i really want to ask brooks and ive been trying to ask this for over a year in an interview, and he hasnt done any is why isnt he doing more to protect children on omegle . Its as simple as that. I dont know what to make of leif brooks, because he doesnt speak. He doesnt speak publicly, he doesnt do any interviews. Hes a very enigmatic kind of character, really. Had this massive rise in the tech world, founded the website omegle when he was 18. I mean, hes clearly a very intelligent, technologically thinking person. As well as omegle, He Co Founded Another Tech Firm called octane ai. But these images and his profile have now been deleted from the company website, and the firm says they no longer work with him. They didnt say why, but previously, theyve been clear to distance themselves from any association with omegle. Its this persistent problem it has with predators. Thats what i want to talk to him about. And thats what ive been trying to organise an interview about ever since i started looking into it. And then, its sadly come to this. Doorbell Chimes Brooks was definitely in. All the blinds on his house were swiftly closed. One of his neighbours told us he rarely leaves the house and never talks to them. We decided to wait in the florida heat to see if he came out. Nearly seven hours later, he emerged. Mr brooks. Can we ask you some questions, please . Were from the bbc. Door slams mr brooks, wejust want to ask you some questions its about your website, mr brooks. Its about omegle. We want to know why youre not protecting children, mr brooks. Can you come out and have a conversation, please . We tried. Weve come all the way here, trying to have a civilised conversation with him. The blinds are all closed. Erm. Weve tried all we can. He doesnt want to talk. He never wants to talk. Its a shame. Ive got lots of questions. Mr brooks did reply to an email. He said people are solely responsible for their own behaviour while using his website, but that omegle takes the safety of users extremely seriously. He said the site is moderated by ai tools and human moderators. He also says he works with Law Enforcement and organisations working to stop the online exploitation of children. In portland, the make or break hearing has arrived. Many cases like this have been thrown out at this stage, but the team is confident. Hours later, omegles legal team walk out. They dont want to talk. No comment, but feel free to email us questions. Ok, thank you very much. Were definitely moving forward on the Product Liability claims. One of the rare cases against a platform that is moving toward trial. So, the game shall be beginning. Mr brooks wouldnt answer questions about the lawsuit, but there are no signs his team will accept that omegle is liable for what happened. However, weeks after alice notified the company about the lawsuit, a small measure of protection was added a tick box, to confirm that users are over 18. Do you think that stops children going on there . Erm, ifeel like it made it worse, low key, just because. Before, there was no nothing, so everyone just got on, but now, its the fact that obviously, you have to be 18, so im guessing for the kids and for the young teenagers, they find it more enticing and more exciting. Like, ooh, im not actually supposed to be on here. Its for people over 18. Leif brooks wont say what prompted the change, but alices team are pretty certain why he did it, after years of only minor changes to the text on the site. Is this the alice effect . This is. Im confident that this is the alice effect. We do see this as a partial victory. It feels like omegle is owning up to some of. The responsibility that they ought to. But theres a lot more to be fought, and this. Is not sufficient. Im glad theres small changes, but they are purely superficial. Theyre there to save face, not protect children. Everyday things remind me of what ive been through. Theres healing, but i cant gain those years back. And it presents itself in even the smallest of ways. In doing my hair fordyce wanted me to look as young as possible, and having my hair in a ponytail to the left side was a favourite of his. And if my hair even gets pulled to that side in a ponytail accidentally, it can run shudders through my body. This platform has allowed abuse that carries through a lifetime. What would be the Ideal Scenario for you . What would you like to see, the end of this website completely . I dont think it carries enough benefits to destroy childrens lives. So, i do not think theres a place for it. If one person is so severely hurt, let alone the thousands of other children that have gone through this, and will continue to go through this, as long as the platform continues. Hello. It was a very mild weekend and it looks as though monday is going to be every bit as mild. But how about the week overall . Heres the summary. That mild start monday and tuesday. Were expecting a cold front to reach us on wednesday. So there will be some rain midweek. And then after that, its going to turn a little bit colder. So heres the forecast. And starting with the satellite picture, you can see the clouds are still streaming in out of the south west. So a mild direction, hence those higher temperatures. And the weather map also shows ice bars and plenty of them across northern scotland. And that means those strong winds will continue through early monday. So the forecast then shows lots of cloud through the early hours, but a few clear spells as well. Wet in Western Scotland and the Early Morning temperatures will be typically around double figures across the board, maybe a little fresher in the south where we will have had a few clear spells. So lots of cloud first thing, but clouds will break to give way to sunny spells, maybe to the east of the high ground around the midlands to the south. Temperatures could actually reach 16 degrees celsius in Eastern Parts of the country. But where the clouds persist, more typically around 11 to 13 degrees. So thats monday. How about tuesday . A Weather Front is approaching which will introduce eventually colder air, but its still to the west of us. Were ahead of it and ahead of it. Weve got that South Westerly Airstream and a lot of cloud around on tuesday and the cloud will be thick. I dont think therell be many sunny spells developing on tuesday. Temperatures still managing to reach around 11 to 13 degrees celsius. And then a change happens on wednesday. A Cold Front Sweeps across the country and pushes the milder air towards the east. But its not desperately cold air. In fact, were expecting the temperatures to return to the seasonal norm. So, yes, its a northerly from a cold direction, but its not all that cold. I think its going to feel colder because of the cloud and the rain and the stronger wind on the north sea. So the temperatures even as high as ten degrees in one or two spots. And yes, there is a chance of a few wintry showers, but thats mostly across the scottish mountains. So midweek, yes, a mixed bag with outbreaks of rain. Heres the summary with the outlook. A mild start to the week rain midweek with that slightly colder air arriving and then end of the week, it could actually improve once again. Bye bye. Welcome to bbc news, im rich preston. Our top stories a warning for beijing the us tells china not to sell russia weapons for its war in ukraine. Nearly two weeks on from turkey and syrias devastating earthquakes, the search for survivors is to come to an end. Police looking for Nicola Bulley the woman who disappeared in the northwest of england say theyve found a body. 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