Online predators have been exploiting aspiring "child stars," mostly girls between just 10 and 15 years old, into producing obscene videos. With the boom in "child star" TV programs, some parents have been pressuring kids to aspire to fame without taking heed of possible dangers.
An unidentified individual provided a Beijing Youth Daily reporter with short QQ videos and other recordings made by online predators while chatting with girls. Under the guise of being talent recruiters, the criminals would ask the girls to shoot nude videos under the pretense of taking their measurements, and pushed the children to assume obscene positions, Beijing Youth Daily reported.
The videos are sold for profit online, raising a particular price if they are 'originals' that haven't been posted before. Beijing Youth Daily reported that the price for the videos is higher than for adult pornography, which each short film selling for around 300 yuan (US$44.43).
Even after discovering the situation, some parents choose not to call the police because they are afraid that the predators will respond to investigation by widely distributing the obscene images of their children.
Han Xiao, a lawyer in the Beijing Kangda law firm, said that parents should actively protect their children and seek help from the police, while properly preserving the evidence, such as the kids' chat records with criminals.
Experts also pointed to the unsafe online environment. “Forums and other online platforms should strengthen and improve supervision of users’ identity and their posted information. For obvious criminal material [such as child pornography], online platforms have an obligation to monitor and delete it. In particular, if online platforms don't delete or block criminal material they've been alerted to, they should be held legally liable,” Zhang Xinnian, another lawyer in Beijing said.
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