Young runaway girls victims in online live web chats
In December last year, viewers of an online live chat heard the cries of a young Japanese girl held captive, sitting in front of a screen naked and pleading for someone to rescue her.
A helpless runaway teen in the Adachi ward of Tokyo, Japan, the 17 year old girl was a victim of live chatroom operators who make use of young ladies like her to perform indecent acts before a camera for a live online audience. She was shortly rescued by the authorities and her captors arrested.
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Lucrative business
The prominent rise of real-time webcasts and live chats have made it extremely easy for those offering adult content footage online to make a quick buck. All they have to prepare are a personal computer, a camera and a hapless runaway girl to perform the services. These total up to a mere 100,000 yen initial investment, just slightly over a thousand Singapore dollars.
Its returns, however, are jaw-dropping. With its indecent footage, such sites can charge 100 yen (slightly over 1 Singapore dollar) per minute, totaling their profits to an obscene 1 million yen monthly. However, the girls themselves get paid a measly 4000 yen (around 50 Singapore dollars) a week.
Child pornography
Having run away from home, these girls have nowhere to go and no one to turn to, making them easy prey to such schemes. All that has to be offered include a room to stay and a bit of pocket money for the girls to fall into a trap like this.
Having to appear online almost every night at the peak late-night hours from 10pm to 3am, these girls are subjected to the requests of their audience, who often demand that they perform indecent acts onscreen. While operators claim that they avoid hiring girls below 18 years of age, many also report that some girls often fabricate their identities.
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Just a casual job?
Taking on their responsibilities in this work sphere, some women in the live chat industry view their activities as just part of a casual part-time job. As they need not have to deal with lecherous customers in person, these girls believe that it is an easy part-time job anyone can do.
Protecting your child
Teaching your kid the importance of online safety is the first step in ensuring that such misdeeds are not allowed to flourish locally. When you equip your child with an awareness that the virtual world can be as dangerous as the physical world, he or she will be more in the know of the necessary precautions to take while surfing the web, protecting both their individual and community.
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