Eden Kamar, a Ph.D. student in cybersecurity at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Dr. C. Jordan Howell, a cybercrime specialist at the University of South Florida, collaborated to highlight the various methods that pedophiles prey on young children in the US.
Howell explained that the team intended to understand how sexual predators first approach kids in chatrooms to start a dialogue before using devious means to gain their trust and record child porn. Around October 2021 and May 2022, the study was conducted.
The research started by developing a number of automated chatbots which never initiated a conversation and were set to only respond to users that identified as being at least 18 years old.
In 30 randomly chosen chatrooms for teenagers, the chatbots had roughly 1,000 conversations with potential pedophiles. Then, 38 percent of online predators emailed unwanted links, according to Howell. In text chats seen on public platforms, the bots asked predators for their "a/s/l"—age, sex, location—after which, once the bot identified herself as a 13 or 14-year-old female, the predators returned with a video link.
A surprising 41% of links went to Whereby, a competitor of Zoom that offers video and audio conferencing. According to the company's website, it was founded in Norway ten years ago and has worked with organizations like Spotify and Netflix.
Howell added that after exploring the company's website, the researchers discovered that Whereby permits users to manage other participants' webcams without their knowledge.
19% of the links contained malicious malware, and another 5% sent users to well-known phishing websites. Phishing sites are intended to obtain personal information, including home addresses, while malware sites can be used to remotely access a child's computer. Phishing attempts can also offer a predator access to a child's computer password, which can be used to log in and manage a camera from a distance.
