The internet is a wide and wonderful place, being able to play games with people all over the world and listen to music at the press of a button the ability to communicate and share your experience with the world is just a moment away. Sadly though, some people seek to use this ability for less than honourable reasons, as shown by a recent Youtuber who tweeted out inappropriate images of a fan.
The act of streaming of your gaming experience and sharing it, sometimes even in the game, with fans from around the world, is not rare these days with many people making a life out of the activity. Marcus Wilton, who went by LionMaker, is a streamer based in Belgium who often streamed he popular block-based game, Minecraft. He has made up an audience of over 600,000 subscribers, many of whom are young teens or even pre-teen in age.
It now appears that he used that position to have inappropriate conversations and obtain indecent images of people, including trying to obtain an image of a 12-year-old via Skype and a 16-year-old girl and that’s believed to be the tip of the iceberg.
In defence of himself, Wilton claims that he was hacked on several occasions including on the 21st December when pictures of the 16-year-old girl in question were posted via his twitter feed. This has yet to be independently confirmed, but a third girl has come forward stating that she was offered $500 for images of herself, with the money being transferred through PayPal even when the offer was refused.
We at eTeknix would like to remind everyone to be safe online, be mindful of the images and details you share with people online and if you ever suspect something or receive messages that upset you, then contact a family member and report the messages, be they received by Skype, Facebook or any other method for that matter. If you receive the messages by text or a phone call then contact your service provider and report the offending number immediately.
