Posted by Midori

This is a problem that has persisted for as long as GraalOnline has existed on mobile platforms, and does not appear to be going away any time soon.

A while ago I ran a few investigations into users who ask for Kik for "chat" and there were some interesting results. Between 2011 to 2013, there was a decreasing trendline in male users asking girls for Kik explicitly requesting indecent images, however there was also a similar increase in apparent lesbian users asking girls for Kik to "chat" or "have fun" and "make friends". The number increase in the latter was roughly equal to the decrease of the former.

Using a spare account, I left the character idle in Graal City and received a dozen or so such invitations. Once a Kik username was exchanged, they wasted no time in making demands for nude photographs. Their intended targets are usually underaged teenagers and they appear to know that their actions are against the law.

Through making some small talk and attempting to divert the conversation topic, I was able to trace the personal details of the majority of such users down to their real names and locations. Unsurprisingly, 100% of the "lesbian" Kik users were males in disguise. When presented with this evidence and told that their actions were illegal, most of them used the excuse "I'm below the age of 18 so these laws don't apply to me, I'm not doing anything wrong" (most of them were below 18, a few were above), which is actually untrue, since they were still committing an offence. What was shocking was how some of them are already in relationships (through some background research, about half of them are) and yet they do this behind their girlfriends' backs, as well as their blatant disregard for the law and morality in general. Additionally there was evidence to suggest some of these users were collecting underaged nude images and then sharing them online, an act of child pornography.

If I kept an archive of all of these sex offenders' details and submitted them to law enforcement organisations, there would be enough evidence to successfully prosecute several dozens of them and keep them away from vulnerable children in the future.