A popular video chat app has received a formal warning from eSafety as Australian law enforcement raises concerns that it could be used to groom children.
OmeTV is a popular roulette-style video chat app that matches strangers, including adults and children.
It’s popular among Australian children and is currently the 11th most popular social networking app on the Apple App Store, and the 9th most popular free social app on the Google Play store.
But eSafety has issued a formal warning to OmeTV’s parent company “Bad Kitty’s Dad, LDA” for alleged breaches of the Relevant Electronic Services (RES) industry standard.
According to the eSafety warning, the app doesn’t have required safety features and settings and allows adults to video chat with children without sufficient protections.
Australian law enforcement have also warned that these types of randomised video chat services could be used by child sexual abuse offenders to groom kids.
“We know that this service is popular with children and for this reason it’s also popular with adults seeking to sexually prey on them,” Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said in a statement.
“Stranger danger used to mean warning kids not to talk to people they didn’t know on the way home from school.
“Today, randomised video chat apps like OmeTV allow those same predatory strangers to anonymously manipulate, coerce and groom children through devices in the privacy of their bedrooms.”
She has also written to Apple and Google to notify them of the eSafety enforcement action and remind them of their own obligations.
Though OmeTV has been issued a formal warning, there are many other platforms (Chatroulette, HOLLA, Monkey, etc.) that could pose a threat to young users without appropriate safety measures.
Many anonymous chat platforms operate without age checking and pair users randomly, often without protective filters.
As well as issuing formal warnings, eSafety can enforce additional powers and even seek civil penalties of up to $49.5 million to ensure the safety of all Australians, especially our youth.
“The ultimate goal is to encourage individual services and the online industry as a whole, to lift their game and prioritise safety,” Inman Grant said.
