Tech giants Apple and Google have removed roulette-style video chat service OmeTV from their Australian app stores after eSafety alerted them to how the app was being used by predatory adults to groom and sexually exploit Australian children.
In August, eSafety sent a formal warning to OmeTV’s parent company ‘Bad Kitty’s Dad, LDA’, based in Portugal, for alleged breaches of Australia’s codes and standards, namely the Relevant Electronic Services (RES) industry standard.
The Commissioner also wrote to Apple and Google to remind them of their own obligations to protect children under the App Store code.
The Codes and Standards are a key requirement set out in Australia’s Online Safety Act requiring all members of the online industry to tackle the worst-of-the-worst online content, including apps that enable child sexual exploitation and abuse on their services.
Australian law enforcement agencies have long raised concerns about the use of these types of chat-roulette style services by child sexual abuse offenders to groom children.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said that after further engagement with both Apple and Google over the past few weeks she was pleased both companies took action as part of their obligations under the App Store Code.
“OmeTV was a deeply risky app that paired adults and children together randomly for live video chat, and led to grooming and sexual exploitation of Australian children, as well as others globally, so it was appropriate for Apple and Google to take action under the codes and standards,” Ms Inman Grant said.
“The service entirely failed to engage with eSafety, despite receiving a warning from us for failing to comply with Australian law, but due to the multi-layered protections provided under the codes, the distribution channels for this dangerous app have been limited.
“This is a great example of how the codes and standards work in practice to improve safety across the online industry and protect children .”
The App Store Code also requires app store providers to be proactive in ensuring apps available on their Australian app stores have appropriate protections in relation to unlawful and seriously harmful material such as child sexual exploitation.
eSafety expects Apple and Google to take this opportunity to review the apps available on their Australian stores more broadly to ensure there are not other similar apps available that breach app store terms and conditions.
”We will continue to monitor compliance with the codes and standards and action where necessary to protect children from the most serious harms,” Ms Inman Grant said.
”I will not hesitate to take strong enforcement action if Australian children are not protected from harmful apps due to failures of App Store owners to comply with the App Code.“
The Codes and Standards apply to eight industry sections, including social media services, websites, search engines, app stores, internet service providers, device manufacturers, hosting services, and electronic services, including cloud-based file and photo storage, email, messaging, gaming and dating services.
There are a range of additional enforcement powers available to eSafety, including seeking civil penalties of up to $49.5m, which eSafety will use as required to ensure the safety of Australians.
eSafety encourages children, parents, carers and the community to read eSafety’s recent advisory on the risks of these ‘chat-roulette’ services.
For more information or to request an interview, please contact:
Phone: 0439 519 684 (virtual line – please do not send texts) or [email protected]