When I was about 12 or 13, my friends and I used to play a game at sleepovers. Crowded around an iPhone or computer screen, upstairs and out of sight of our parents, we would log onto Omegle, a now-defunct website whose sole function was to pair anonymous users at random for one-on-one video chats.
It was usually only a matter of minutes before we’d see the first penis. One after another they would flash up on the screen as we fell about cackling, half-covering our eyes with our school jumper sleeves. “Ewwww! Next, next!” After exchanging a few messages, someone would end the chat, and the game began again. It was only years later that I realised the reality of what was happening — we were in direct contact with paedophiles.
