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Washington, United States
After 10 long trauma-filled years, a young woman is suing online chatting app Omegle, where she was randomly paired with a paedophile, who forced her to become a digital sex slave. The woman, who BBC named Alice is now 21 and is in a loving relationship, described that despite moving on in life, the scars of the abuse she suffered still linger.
Alice first experienced Omegle when she was at a slumber party with her friends. Back then, the app was becoming a wild corner of the internet.
After her sleepover, she logged in alone and that's when she was matched with the Canadian paedophile Ryan Fordyce.
Struggling with early teenage anxieties, Alice began talking with Fordyce as he made her feel better. During their first video chat, he persuaded her to share her personal message details.
Alice said that she was only 11, but he wanted her to look as young as she could.
She said he was very particular about the way she looked in the video and forced her to send him images, and used to tell her to wear a ponytail to the left side of her head.
"He was able to manipulate me immediately. Very quickly, I was being forced to do things that a child should not have to do."
The man was able to coerce her to send intimate images and convinced Alice that she was complicit in making and sharing child abuse sexual material.
The fear of arrest kept Alice quiet.
"I spent a huge chunk of my childhood at his beck and call. Every day is at the will of someone else who had the worst of intentions for children."
This continued for three years until Fordyce lost his interest and the communication petered out.
Alice planned to carry this to her grave until one-day Canadian police noticed that someone is sharing child sexual abuse material online. They soon tracked the IP address to Fordyce with a search warrant.
When the police went, Ryan was out, but constable Pam Klassen logged in to his computer and found a horrific collection of child sexual abuse images and videos sent by several children under his orders.
His wife said that there must be a mistake. She was shocked.
The folders were categorised into seven different sections with names and age groups, among which there was Alice, 11-14.
Also read | UK cop admits to 71 sexual offences in one of the worst serial rape crimes
Fordyce was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2021.
With Ryan behind the bars, Alice is going after Omegle to fight a case, and this would be the first tech case where a platform is put on trial for the way it is built.
The legal team for the platform argued in court that the website is not to be blamed for what happened to Alice and other girls, and denied that it is a haven for predators.
The case is still on, Alice's legal team said that she wants Omegle to close down.
(With inputs from agencies)
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(with inputs from agencies)