Serious danger. Over 80 pedophile apps found in App Store and Google Play

Although Apple and Google app store policies prohibit pornographic content, dozens of apps dedicated to it can be found in them. Many of them offer live broadcasts of child sexual abuse.

A slew of apps were found in the app stores of the two most popular manufacturers that allow you to watch live videos of naked adults. These platforms had appropriate names that clearly demonstrated their orientation (18+ Live & Video Chat, Adult Live Chat, Adult Calls, Love Chat, etc.). What's worse, there are also dozens of apps for pedophiles in the App Store and Google Play that allow them to pay to broadcast adults (often parents) raping and corrupting children. The New York Times journalists managed to find more than 80 such apps before the search was stopped. Many of these apps didn't even have to be found: they were easily found through a search, and some of them even had warnings from other users about what was happening in the app.

These apps often worked like this: adults would run a page on a streaming service like Bigo Live, Gaze, Superlive, and Tango and offer or discuss the possibility of creating videos of sexual abuse of minors on the app. If the user was interested, they were directed to another streaming app with the option of paying per minute for a view. There, the “client” would could pay and control how the children are&mocked.

An undercover agent for the US Department of Homeland Security involved in operations to expose such criminals says that the clients of such services are primarily American men.

«It's not that they're being abused once a day. It's 50 men getting 50 separate shows. They'll wake these kids up in the middle of the night to abuse them», — the agent says.

In one such profile, identified by the NYT, a woman in Vietnam described sexual acts she would perform for money. The descriptions included videos featuring a mother, daughter, and son. In addition to pedophilia, many apps on both platforms advertised sex shows or bestiality. Another profile featured a woman in Vietnam offering “hot videos” featuring young sisters, a little girl, three little boys, and a dog. Live streaming of child sexual abuse is believed to be most prevalent in the Philippines, although the data is not sufficient to draw such conclusions. International Justice Mission, a global human rights organization with a child protection program in the country, commissioned a study last year that found that nearly 500 000 Filipino children were abused while creating illegal images.

On platforms, as well as those where users are not doing anything illegal, streamers earn money from streaming, and app owners also get a cut, as do Apple and Google, which provide platforms for apps to be hosted. These tech giants typically take a 15% to 30% cut of every in-app purchase.

Neither Apple nor Google commented on the findings and did not address the issue of in-app purchases with illegal streaming. Both companies have said they have a zero-tolerance policy for child sexual abuse material and have removed or suspended the apps they found. Both have also said they require app developers to monitor user-generated content on their platforms. Apple also said it has changed its search recommendations to no longer show such content to users.