A Northern Ireland based online safety organisation has issued a warning about an ‘extremely dangerous website’.
The INEQE group said on Tuesday night that their “online safety experts have been alerted to an extremely dangerous website and app called ‘Monkey’, which allows users to have video calls with strangers”.
They added: “The platform markets itself as ‘an alternative to Omegle, with a TikTok vibe’. Our online safety experts reviewed and tested this platform and have found that it contains large amounts of inappropriate, disturbing, and harmful content transmitted via web cameras.”
The organisation, run by safeguarding expert Jim Gamble, examined the site after being alerted to it by school staff. They reported that a child had been exposed to extreme pornographic content earlier on Tuesday.
INEQE have released a short video message on the issue.
In it Colin Stitt, from INEQE, says they “don’t take the decision to issue an alert lightly”, but that visitors to the site are “highly likely to be exposed to extreme sexual content”.
INEQE warns that “everything, from the name, to the graphics used on the platform suggest this is created to attract children”.
They add: “It is described as ‘an Omegle Alternative with TikTok vibes’. On Google Play Store, its description reads ‘Make friends and chat to celebrities’ and the app has copied TikTok’s vertical style video feed.”
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