THE NEW YORK TIMES – The promotional photo showed a mother affectionately hugging and kissing her daughter. The girl, around 8 years old, smiled into the camera.
With a few swipes on their phones, men entered a livestream where they paid $150 to watch the mother sexually abuse the girl for 10 minutes.
The horrendous activity wasn’t hidden on some dark corner of the internet. It was available for anyone with an iPhone or Android to download from the Apple or Google app store.
The woman, who lives in Southeast Asia, promoted her livestream on Bigo Live, a video chat app where The New York Times viewed a screenshot of her profile early this year.
When she was later contacted online by an undercover agent for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security — posing as a man interested in young girls — she directed him to another livestreaming app, where her pay-per-view sexual abuse had moved.
Since last year, The Times has been investigating the world of parents who run accounts on Instagram and elsewhere for their underage daughters and who post or sell racy photos of the girls, in some cases earning large sums of money.
The Times reported in February that many of the so-called mom-run social media accounts with the biggest reach were overwhelmingly followed by adult men, including pedophiles.
The livestream apps downloaded from Apple and Google illustrate an even darker aspect of the social media technology boom, particularly for children living in poverty in developing countries.
There, with the ease of a smartphone, parents and other adults can connect with pedophiles in the United States and elsewhere who pay to watch — and direct — criminal behavior.
After confirming the authenticity of the Bigo livestreamer with the authorities, The Times searched the Apple and Google app stores for other video chat apps.
Reporters identified a sample of more than 80 apps that advertised children before stopping the search …
