A children’s watchdog group is warning parents about a live-streaming app that sends a “significant volume of sexual content” to kids.
The Canadian Centre for Child Protection said Tuesday that kids downloading Cake — Live Stream Video Chat are being sent explicit messages and photos, sometimes just hours after downloading the app.
The app, which is developed by iHello, says on its download screen that it has “no tolerance for nudity and violence and other offensive behaviours.”
However, when centre employees downloaded it, they said they received four unsolicited messages with sexual content, “including a sexually explicit video from a male user” in just 12 hours.
The app states in its terms of use, which pop up when you log in, that it’s only meant for users over 13 years old. But the centre said the requirement was “buried,” and claimed it is not enforced, rendering it useless. The age requirement is under the twelfth heading in the terms of use.
The app allows users to earn money via live-streaming, which the centre said encourages risky behaviour.
Sharing live broadcasts and chatting one-on-one with new people earns users “diamonds,” which they can exchange for money.
“This may encourage teens to take risks like talking to people they do not know, who can ask them to perform tasks that may progress to being sexual in nature,” the centre said.
“This creates opportunities for individuals to seek out youth and gradually manipulate them into sharing sexual images or videos, which can be captured as screenshots or video without your teen ever knowing.”
