Nudity, public sex, stalkers: What children are in for on live-streaming apps

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Nudity, public sex, stalkers: What children are in for on live-streaming apps

As live videos grow in popularity, parents tin be more vigilant about protecting youngsters from the manipulation and sexually suggestive content found on this real-time platform. Talking Betoken investigates.

SINGAPORE: Every bit a teenager who uses live-streaming apps, she was alarmed to find her 10-yr-old niece watching disturbing content on one such app 1 twenty-four hour period: A person stripping in front of the camera.

The eighteen-year-old also came to know of a daughter around her historic period who was asked to take off her clothes while using one of these apps.

Ms Koh, who declined to give her full name, is now deeply concerned about whether the app moderators are able to "moderate the alive streams 24/7 (for) obscene and sexual content".

She alerted the programme Talking Point to such activities on these apps, fretting that her niece may not know that online stripping is wrong.

READ: Cathay busts live-stream porn app gang: Report

Live pornography, still, is not the only thing taking place on these streams. Teenagers are spending hours on these platforms, running the risk of giving out their details and being enticed by "virtual gifts" to exercise stuff in return.

And these apps, which permit users broadcast whatever they are doing in their individual space – whether information technology is idle chatter, singing or just their homework – are growing in popularity.

Globally, net videos will command fourscore per cent of consumer traffic by 2020, according to forecasts from Cisco Systems. In China solitary, almost iii-quarters of the 450 million Chinese watching videos online are live-stream users.

Mainland china's meridian live-streaming celebrities can even earn more than U.s.$700,000 (S$960,000) a year. That ways their viewers, teenagers or otherwise, are not only watching but as well spending on them.

Equally Talking Point discovered, after monitoring the popular sites for two weeks, in that location is more to the world of live streaming than meets the eye. (Watch the episode here.)

VOYEURISM MADE Easy

In Singapore, the superlative grossing alive-streaming networks are not Facebook, Instagram or YouTube but apps like Bigo Live, 17 Live and Uplive, which boast features such every bit social networking, live video chats and trivia games.

"Baiwan Yingjia" or "Millions Winner", an online quiz game by alive streaming app Huajiao, is seen on a mobile telephone in this illustration picture taken January 22, 2018. (Photograph: Reuters/Florence Lo)

These apps have a recommended minimum age limit, for example above 17 on Bigo Live and 17 Live. On apps like YouNow and BeLive, nevertheless, information technology is 12 years old.

Live-streaming teenagers such as Kyra Yew, eighteen, and Ryan Francisco, xix, typically spend about three hours on such apps every twenty-four hour period. The attraction lies in "meeting new people every day", explained Mr Francisco.

They meet alive streaming equally a means to expand their social circumvolve, be function of a community and, sometimes, meet upward in person besides online. They have, however, also had nasty encounters online.

For example, one guy exposed his genitals to Ms Yew, and a couple showed themselves having sexual activity. Although this kind of streaming is not allowed, "the affair is, the administrators can't end what they tin't run across commencement", she said.

Mr Francisco, who encounters sexual content about twice a month, added: "We can't do much (to control information technology) considering … any Tom, Dick or Harry can stream whatsoever he wants. So information technology's more of watching the stream at your own risk."

From left: Alive-streaming teens Letitia Koh, Kyra Yew, Ryan Francisco and Joel Tan, with Talking Indicate host Brendon Fernandez.

Talking Point host Brendon Fernandez saw for himself what happened on ane teenage girl'southward live stream while she was singing and doing her homework.

A viewer called her "infant", asked for her number and, after being ignored, asked if she wanted to see his genitals.

UNAWARE PARENTS

So what are the streaming companies doing? M17 Entertainment said its technology can monitor content that users post, while BeLive – with about 500,000 registered users, of whom 60 per cent are Singaporeans – has a team moderating the content.

BeLive chief operating officer Ken Ang is not surprised that nudity and sexual acts occur occasionally.

"Subsequently all, it's live stream; information technology'southward raw content. So that's the reason we have moderators to monitor 24/vii," he said. "Nosotros also develop our own image recognition tools (to detect nudity)."

Bigo Live, too, has a team of "censorship officers" inspecting the streams. To further protect minors, it has a censorship role that uses artificial intelligence to scan for facial definition and determine the user's age.

About of the parents Talking Point spoke to were not aware that such apps existed, and many were troubled when they institute out what the teens were exposed to on the live streams.

"This is very upsetting. You have people from all over the world who can access you … in your individual space. This is something we demand to find some solution to," one mother said.

While one father was discomfited past those letters the children were getting from the "wrong people", what struck another father was that some students were giving their location away past live streaming in school and wearing their uniform.

"People tin can easily selection up where you are. And so it all smacks of danger," he said.

That is a concern Ms Yew'south parents have also expressed, along with the warning that her alive streaming should non touch on her studies.

She said: "They're worried that, potentially, if I share something about my personal life, information technology could backfire and harm me."

READ: Commentary: Alive life without having to prove information technology on social media

Live-streaming host Jo Ann Chen advised teenagers to be streetwise. "You can fix your location to private and then that people don't know where yous are," she said.

"Don't share your personal details and … where you'd be, if you don't want to exist stalked."

MAKING MONEY FROM IT

Ms Chen, who is in her 20s, learned how to protect herself particularly because live streaming is her total-time task.

She started concluding twelvemonth and has a fan base of over 100,000 viewers, making money from the virtual gifts they purchase for her.

These gifts, from students too as working adults, range from a few cents to a few hundred dollars and tin can be redeemed for greenbacks.

Ms Chen did not divulge her income from cashing out these gifts only disclosed that some of them may come with requests. Some people would ask her to dance, for instance, before they transport her something.

"I don't (practice it) because I'grand quite stubborn. So when they ask me, I'd just say I wouldn't," she said.

Erstwhile technology announcer Oo Gin Lee, who runs a public relations agency now, said he would be very cautious if his iii girls, ii of whom are teenagers, were to starting time using live-streaming apps.

While alive-streaming technology is neutral, in that location is cause for business organization, he said, drawing a comparison betwixt these apps and sex activity webcams in the past, whereby the audition could puddle their money for the woman to do things such as strip.

"I've not seen anything like that, simply I'm simply saying that's the kind of danger," he added.

To monitor his children's digital activities, he installed the parental command Family Link app on their mobile phones. It tin set screen time limits, lock their devices and block apps until he grants an approval request.

Although parents could forbid their children to apply live-streaming apps, the youngsters could notice other platforms that are harder to monitor. The alternative? An honest discussion with them about precautions they could take, for example restricting location services.

Watch this episode of Talking Point hither. New episodes every Th nighttime.

Nudity, public sex, stalkers: What children are in for on live-streaming apps

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