- The Observer,
- Sunday July 7, 2002
Police are investigating a series of personalised teen websites amid fears that paedophiles could target children who put photographs of themselves on the internet in return for gifts.
An Observer investigation can reveal that British girls as young as 14 are inviting strangers to send them presents through their websites, sometimes offering intimate pictures in return.
The teen craze caught on after word spread among schoolfriends that men in their thirties and forties, often overseas, were willing to send expensive gifts to their favourite children - known as 'camgirls'.
The development has alarmed the police and campaigners for child safety. Detective Chief Superintendant Len Hynds, head of Britain's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit - which last week smashed the 'Shadowz Brotherhood' child porn ring - said it was likely that paedophiles were already targeting some of these schoolgirls' sites.
'It's a very worrying trend, and clearly something we should be getting a more accurate picture of,' he said last night. By linking their websites to 'wishlists' on shopping sites such as Amazon.com and the Playboy Store, camgirls are receiving gifts ranging from underwear to DVDs. Some offer 'special pictures' as a reward.
A number of schoolgirls contacted by the Observer admitted to receiving hundreds of pounds worth of lingerie and CDs, and in some cases commission for advertising porn sites.
Last week, Felicite.com, one of the sites offering wishlists, suspended 100 accounts linked to camgirl sites, including some from the UK. This followed the murder of a 13-year-old girl, Christina Long, in Greenwich, Connecticut, close to the 'real world' base of Felicite.com.
