Mallorca warning: sexual grooming in online games
Mallorca: someone posing as a fellow player earns a young person’s trust, then uses game currency to ask for pictures. Researcher Sandra Sedano warned on Monday, 2 November, that this is one way young people are drawn towards sexual content or prostitution. Speaking at the University of the Balearic Islands, she said dating apps and bogus model offers can also be used to recruit them.
Sedano said more than a third of young people in Spain have seen social media posts offering money for sexual content, and 71 per cent regard such offers as normal.
From games to dating apps
Recruiters can approach players on Roblox, Fortnite, Discord or Twitch, Sedano said. They do not ask for images straight away: first, they work to gain trust. On livestreams on Twitch, TikTok or YouTube, virtual gifts can lead to conversations with minors away from the broadcast, followed by requests for intimate pictures.
Sedano also pointed to Tinder, Hinge and Badoo. The apps are intended for adults, but minors can enter with a false age. She said recruiters look there for young people and vulnerable women. In a study she cited, 33.8 per cent of girls who had sex after using such an app wanted to stop, and the man became angry. The study also found that 27.7 per cent of the sexual activity involved penetration without a condom and without consent.
Bogus offers and fake images
Fake casting calls and job offers are another route. Sedano said recruiters contact women who post on TikTok or Instagram, promising money for explicit content and presenting it as a way to earn from their bodies.
She described another tactic involving men who start relationships with vulnerable women from other countries. They promise love and help, try to cut the women off from family and social media, then ask for an intimate image as proof of love.
Even a public photograph can be used to make a pornographic deepfake: an artificial-intelligence image that falsely shows someone in sexual content. The image may be fake, Sedano said, but the harm is real. She called its use to humiliate and control someone sexual violence.
Topics: Social affairs
Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com