This is a failure of parenting. WTF is an 11 year old doing on Omegle?

But how the hell are they saying “forced” to do something by some scumbag over the internet?

There was a group from Brazil doing stuff like that and got publicized when they were arrested recently. Usually they'd coerce the minor into sending one picture, then use it as blackmail against them to give them more. They might even gaslight them to convince them that they'll get in big trouble if they tell anyone and it'll just get worse for them.

I've seen full fledged adults taken hard by scammers and willingly giving them thousands of dollars against their own interests, and they heavily distrust and resist anyone trying to help them. I can only imagine accomplishing that with a child that lacks long term thinking skills is even more effective.

So have you heard of emotional violence or exploitation? That's how that works over the internet. You don't need to be in the same room to be forced to do something if you're vulnerable.

What kind of conditions does a kid have to be in at home to feel like they can't turn to their parent/guardian for help in a terrifying situation like that?

Or… close the tab?

children are incredibly easy to influence. "if you don't do it I will find where you live and harm your family, and do not call the cops/tell your parents" is often enough threat.

God, this entire comment section is nothing but

"I'm not victim blaming, but..."

"personal responsibility"

"parents should be doing blah blah blah....no, I don't have kids."

The best parents in the world still can't control what their kids are doing every second of every day. Kids will always find ways around every single thing that's meant to restrict what they can do, see, or hear. I'm sure you never did stuff you weren't supposed to when you were a kid...right?

If a bar is consistently serving alcohol to minors, it deserves consequences.

I don't understand the comparison. Are the children being preyed upon the alcoholics in this scenario?

I'm confused, are you saying that it was the 11 year old girl's personal responsibility to avoid being the victim of sexual abuse? Or are you saying that it was her parents' responsibility to be monitoring her technology use 24/7?

Neither seems right to me...

Now the predators will just continue to do there thing in a darker hole that is even harder to find.

If it's harder to find, then fewer children stumble upon it and get preyed upon, which is a good thing.

If a drunk driver kills someone then the place who served them is sued

That darker hole is discord though, I wrote to them begging them to shut down their public server/community finder

Of all the sites the center tracked, only Facebook, Google, Instagram, and WhatsApp ranked higher.

If there are four that are worse, "only" seems out of place on that sentence.

Her lawsuit, filed in 2021, alleged that she met a man in his thirties on Omegle who forced her to take naked photos and videos over a three-year period. She was just 11 when it began in 2014.

Not all methods of force are physical. This was an adult talking to an 11 year old. 11 year olds have in many cases not had enough life experience to understand that there are adults that will manipulate them in this way. It’s possible he got her to do things and then blackmailed her for more. Regardless of how he did it, he was an adult and she was an 11 year old child. Not acceptable no matter the circumstance.

Perhaps I don't understand why he had power over her.

One can have leverage over another person by threatening to harm oneself or someone else.

There's been many cases in omegle of people threatening "show me your boobs or I'll kill this pet". If the victim complies, the agressor may continue through blackmailing.

I can only assume but the first few pictures where probably coerced and after wards she was threatened to send more or he would release them. That definitely counts as forced. She was only 11 and this thing went on for 3 years. It's definitely not just "look what you made me do".

You can force someone to do something without being physically present.

He somehow got her to get started and then threatened her, saying that she was now complicit in making illegal porn and would get in trouble.

It had video for a reeeaally long time.

That's not what this is about. Omegle wasn't following the regulations we already have, and therefore didn't get the benefits of protection the other sites do:

In the US, social platforms are often protected by Section 230, a broad act that shields them from liability for the content their users post. But the judge in A.M.’s case found last July that Omegle’s design was at fault and it was not protected by Section 230: It could have worked to prevent matches between minors and adults before sexual content was even sent, the judge said.

Omegle was super popular worldwide, it's one of the "first generation" internet social platforms, back from the age when people got really impressed by the possibilities of the web.

Basically, Omegle is a platform where you chat with random people using your webcam. It's like a Google Meet or Skype call, but the website randomly assigns you to somebody else, and you can choose to skip and move on to the next person as soon as you wish.

So you can be browsing and suddenly you're talking to a Brazilian guitar player, and then a maths professor, and then two shy teenagers screaming, and then a dude in a Star Wars costume, and so on.

As you might imagine upon hearing the phrase "random people with their webcams turned on" Omegle was a place filled, and I do mean filled, with naked people. Mostly men. The conversations would start with the camera turned on by default, meaning you'd be flashed with a dick before even being able to react.

It's also infamous for a lot of child porn.