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Warning: This story contains excerpts that some readers may find disturbing.
When she was younger, American Alice (not her real name) used the video chat site Omegle, which happened to put her in contact with a pedophile.
This man forced her to become a digital sex slave. Almost ten years later, the young woman is suing Omegle in a case that could pave the way for a spate of lawsuits against other social platforms.
Little things make Alice remember the abuse she suffered as a child.
Her abuser was very specific about how she should appear in the videos he forced her to upload always with her hair pulled back in a ponytail on the left side of her head.
“I was only 11, but he wanted me to look even younger,” she says.
Even today, when Alice’s hair falls to the left, she begins to tremble.
Alice is now a confident 21yearold in a loving relationship, but says the scars from her abuse will stay with her for the rest of her life.
When Alice first started using Omegle, the app was already gaining a reputation for being something of an internet jungle.
“Me and my friends tried Omegle for a sleepover,” she says. “Everyone at school knew about it. But apparently no one knew exactly what the dangers were.”
Today, the site gets about 73 million visitors per month, mostly from India, the United States, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Australia, according to data from the Semrush website.
For some teens, meeting a stranger through live video chat — where anything can happen — has become something of a rite of passage.
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“Alice” accuses Omegle of being a place where sex offenders don’t get caught
After the sleepover, Alice used Omegle when she was alone. And on that occasion, the app put her in touch with Canadian pedophile Ryan Fordyce.
She faced normal fears of old age and Fordyce made her feel better. During their first video chat, he persuaded her to share personal information.
“He was able to manipulate me immediately,” she says. “Very quickly I was forced to do things that a child should not do.”
After persuading Alice to send in intimate pictures, Fordyce convinced her that she was complicit in the creation and distribution of child sexual abuse material. Fearing arrest, she hid everything from her family and friends.
“I spent a large part of my childhood according to his will. Every day doing the will of someone else who had the worst intentions for children.”
This went on for three years, until finally Fordyce seemed to lose interest and communication ended.
Alice had decided not to tell anyone about the affair, but Canadian police noticed someone was posting child sexual abuse material online.
Officer Pam Klassen, a forensic specialist with the Brandon Police Department — a small town about 120 miles west of Winnipeg — tracked down the IP address of Ryan Fordyce’s family home and obtained a search warrant.
Fordyce was not home when she visited on January 12, 2018, but Klassen managed to break into his computer.
She came across a horrifying collection of sexual abuse images and videos sent in by children at his request. When Fordyce got home for lunch, she arrested him.
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Police officer Pam Klassen found Alice thanks to a picture of the logo on her school uniform.
“He was surprised,” she says, “and his wife thought there must be a mistake.”
Police found seven folders on the computer, each named after a different girl. One of the folders contained 220 pictures and videos of Alice between the ages of 11 and 14, some of them being forced to masturbate and urinate.
Pam Klassen tracked Alice down thanks to her school uniform, which was featured on some materials. Fordyce was sentenced to eight years in prison in December 2021.
Fordyce, a father of two in his late 30s, also used Omegle to molest two other victims.
Alice vs Omegle
With Fordyce behind bars, Alice is now suing Omegle. The case has repercussions around the world.
This is possibly the first time a technology platform has been judged on how it is built something known as the product stewardship process.
Dozens of such lawsuits have been filed against platforms like Instagram and Snapchat over the past year, but Alice’s case — known as AM versus Omegle — may be a pioneer.
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“We’re holding Omegle accountable,” said Carrie Goldberg, attorney in Alice’s lawsuit
“In the US, we have Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which makes it very difficult to sue an online platform,” explains Alice’s attorney, Carrie Goldberg.
“But a few years ago we had this idea: ‘Let’s start treating these platforms like normal products like there’s a flaw in their design that causes harm.’
The legal team argues that Omegle has managed to become a “predator hotbed” due to the randomization system in which conversations are created and the lack of warnings or age verification.
Lawyers are hoping to test this thesis in a lawsuit that could net Alice millionaires’ compensation and force Omegle to switch products.
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Leif K. Brooks founded Omegle at the age of 18 and was included in the 2018 Forbes list of top entrepreneurs under 30
Legal experts agree the case has the potential to change case law.
“If AM goes to court against Omegle and is successful, I think it could pave the way for many more victims to bring up other similar cases,” says Liza Lovdahl Gormsen, who is currently trying to stop Meta, the group that controls Facebook. to sue in a UK class action lawsuit against unfair competition.
Even the outcome of a lawsuit in the United States or elsewhere can benefit users of these websites around the world.
Omegle could also face legal action in the UK if new online safety legislation is passed in the country. The bill provides millionaire fines for companies that fail to protect children from serious harm.
In search of the creator of Omegle
Omegle’s legal team argues in court that the site is not responsible for what happened to Alice and denies that it is a safe haven for sex offenders. But Omegle has been subpoenaed in over 50 cases against pedophiles in the last two years alone. There were more than 20 across the United States, in addition to promotions in the UK, Australia, Spain, Colombia and Cyprus.
The site’s reclusive creator, Leif Brooks, declined to discuss Alice’s case via email. So I went to his house in Orlando, Florida hoping to find him. But again he was silent.
The Internet Watch Foundation a UK charity that fights against online abuse, particularly involving children also approached Brooks about changes to its website. The institution told the BBC that its analysts process around 20 videos from Omegle every week.
Brooks sent a note to the BBC stating that Omegle users are “solely responsible for their own conduct” when using the site. He said that Omegle takes user safety very seriously with artificial intelligence and human moderation, and that the company works with and organizations working to stop online exploitation of children.
In fact, the child molesters were convicted after Omegle turned over their IP addresses to the police.
Omegle made a small change to their website that appears to be related to Alice’s lawsuit.
Weeks after the company was notified of the lawsuit, Omegle began requiring users to tick a box on an online form stating they are over the age of 18. Without them, they cannot have conversations.
But Alice’s legal team says that’s “not enough”.
Alice herself says she would love to see Omegle shut down.
“I don’t think it’s good enough to undo the destruction of children’s lives,” she says.
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