Every parent’s worst irrational nightmare may finally have come true. According to report in the NY Times, popular live webcam streaming service Stickam is owned by pornographers.
The report claims that Stickam’s parent company Advanced Video Communications is owned by Wataru Takahashi, “a Japanese businessman who also owns and operates DTI Services, a vast network of Web sites offering live sex shows over Web cameras”. The report quotes former VP of Stickam Alex Becker alleging that Stickam shares office space, employees and computer systems with pornographic Web sites.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with owning a pornography business, but mixing that business with a service that has 600,000 users, many aged below 18, does raise some rather valid ethical and moral concerns. Would you let your child use Stickam knowing that it’s not only owned by a porn company, but allegedly is run by the very same folks, in the same office?
It is an interesting reflection of society’s concerns when Teens have ready access to online games featuring surreal, nightmarish violence, and DVDs of movies depicting every possible act of violence – but everyone gets up in arms at the thought of them being exposed to online sex or even naked bodies.
Issues of ethics and morality aside, the guy is a business man. He’s hardly going to shoot himself in the foot and let one side of his business spill over into t’other.
Besides, don’t we have other types of businesses whose moral compass could be questioned?
Think of any major government defense contractor, for example. In a very real sense, the technology that zips you from one country to another by jet airliner is the same as what’s to be found in your average surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missiles, or fighter-bomber aircraft.
Anyone care to add to that list?
Especially if there is not exposure at all. If it is kept separate (and it clearly is) what is the difference for stickham users?
Wayne
I understand what you are saying which is why I did note that porn is a legit business, but as a parent (be it that my son is just shy of 5, so not at the webcam stage) I’d be horrified to know that he would be using a service run by these folks, not separately mind you (which would make it a whole pile better) but allegedly in the same office and with the same staff. It’s not inconceivable that an employee may have control over a 14 year old on a cam whilst at the same time having a live porn stream being controlled in another. I’m no prude, and for example I happen to think Australia’s censorship laws (where I live) on porn are way wrong (it’s illegal here) but there’s a line there somewhere, and this may cross it.
You mean your first thought when looking at stickam.com wasn’t that it must have been made by a porn company?
Who else has expertise in understanding how to scale and launch a cam website except for pornographers?
lol that’s just too perfect! I mean we already know kids are out there doing god knows what on YouTube, but this is hilarious because if it breaks out to popular media parents will go ape crazy trying to figure out what else is sponsored by ‘adult’ companies. Maybe myspace? lol
WebSideStory has a similar story. The hitbox platform, now called HBX, was the porn industries main web analytic tool. When they went public they tried hard to distance themselves from their porn roots and Wall Street never could embrace the one time analytic leader. WebSideStory is now called Visual Sciences.
@6 It’s already alleged eUniverse was a spammy dating site and that Tom Anderson used to run asian porn sites. And myspace was bought back in 2005, keep up with the times.
This was obviously a disgruntled employee. Sounds like he was trying to milk stickem for money and this is him making good on the blackmail. MySpace was started by viagra spammers and tons of other sites have ridiculously worse histories than porn. Seems wrong to be supporting this kind of blackmail stuff when there’s not even any real news here…just an angry relationship gone awry and someone trying to do damage.
It’s surprising that it took the NY Times to make this a story. It’s been widely known, at least among people affiliated with the various live streaming services, for a long time.
It does seem quite dodgy but the fact that both websites are separate shouldn’t concern parents.
This is really quite worrying – and I would not be surprised if the two do overlap. Lack of effective controls and child protection measures on streaming services is permitting the growth of a generation of Japanese “camgirls” – teens who offer online sex shows in return for gifts via Amazon wishlists, Paypal tranfsers, etc.
There are some anecdotal indications that EU and USA teens are starting to move in the same direction. Sex per se is not an issue in the EU – we are not really worried about children being exposed to nudity (compared to the US for instance) but are concerned about increasingly early sexualisation of children, particularly girls, and the current growth in child prostitution in some Western European countries, both of which are quite well documented by research. Technology unfortunately seems to be playing a role in this, combined with both organised crime and legal but ethically-dubious businesses.
Wait a second, are you saying that my kids are using the same internet tubes that pornographers are using? I sure hope there’s no tube leakage! My kids were born with clothes on and are asexual.
Dirty! Japanese also disavow all knowledge of “comfort women” but hey, if you can get away with it, dishonest/shady people might try it.
No offense to legit 4th gen Japanese Americans (whom I love). I am merely referring to the war attrocities not acknowledged by nationalist Jap history books. Is Jap derogatory?
Just say sorry. It’s that easy. Just say, “Sorry I killed those people and took women as “comfort women”. And hey USA and China: Here’s a token monument for the 2,000,000 we killed since 200b.c….
p.s. there’s no better formula for world peace than China’s turn the other cheek policy for dealing with unsolved war atrocities.
The book of Matthew really doesn’t address these issues (or does it?) but then again forgiveness isn’t my strongest Christian trait.
I kinda agree noway these should share the same office or servers.
you have to say the owner has good insight, hes already got the adult market down and then looked to see if his tech could be used else where.
For Wataru Takahashi, Stickam is a business. He must follow the game rules. Stickam will not become a porn site. No need to worry about this.
Peter Jenkins is a dipshit..
“This was obviously a disgruntled employee. Sounds like he was trying to milk stickem for money”
In the story, Alex was the Vice President, and had no contract. He could have stayed, but decided to take the high moral road and to inform concerned parents of what stickam is.
“Seems wrong to be supporting this kind of blackmail stuff when there’s not even any real news here…just an angry relationship gone awry and someone trying to do damage.”
Is making parents aware of the dangers their kids are being exposed to?? and stickam is not doing their job at handling complaints. NOT REAL NEWS?? PETER YOUR AN IDIOT! Hmm, let me see, stand by the people who are hiding the fact they are interoperating with porn business or the Former vp who decided to quit based on his morals? hmmm hard choice there. hi lae.:)
There is an alternative! I found out about that a few days ago (the porn thing) and looked up for an alternative. There is this new site http://www.blogtv.com where you can broadcast yourself and chat. pretty cool I would say. No porn connection as far as I know.
@Sarah
It said he worked there 4 months and was trying to negotiate a contract to launch his own new site. Sounds like his bullshit “morals” only surfaced when his blackmail attempt failed and this is the result we’re seeing here. What’s the news? This NY Times reporter is engaging in some pretty yellow journalism…must be desperate for a story. Whistleblowers are one thing but he didn’t even expose any actual harmful things….whats the story? Porn money funded this site? This looks like classic case of (probably illegal) blackmail to me.
there is a very big problem owning a pornographic business
The difference for Stickam users is that their privacy policy states “We share Contact Data with our affiliate companies who may want to send you information about their products or services”.
Whoever or whatever you are, please leave my land!
The euroschwag came over and stole it, then you jumped on the bandwagon.
My tomahawk craves your christian flesh.
Would you let your children use Wikipedia knowing that it was started by a pornography company (Bomis, owned by Jimbo Wales)?
BRING ON THE LEAKY TUBES!
Oh no! The same company that owns a cigarette company also owns a company that produces food! I can’t trust them to make non-addictive food.
@Peter
Your stuck on “an Alleged Blackmail” idea. and “harmful things?”WTF? Having these two business intertwined is dangerous for both parties, Do you want your son or daughter on stickam? Unmonitored? I think not. And If you Do your Research other employees also said the same thing a month ago here: http://www.tech...utube/#comments
and if no one says anything about it, how would we know? We won’t so the reporter did a good job. You should reread the story again and look deeper.
Cause from what I’m hearing your making excuses and shuffling the blame for stickam’s unprofessionalism and lack of management. Scott Flacks should take responsibility for not dealing with all this at the beginning, be more strict on their policy, and Run Stickam entirely separate. Stickam’s operations have not changed in 6 months or more and they have not evolved to develop the site. And Since they don’t have any advertising revenue, the porn pays for everything, Bills paid for a free site under a red light.
I pity you for your cynicsm.
There’s quite a few other companies that offer a similiar service, the list is here:
http://www.web-...ideo-streaming/
I think using this story for traffic makes me ask the question, would I suggest friends, family and children should use tech crunch? Tech Crunch, the NY times, and many other places uses use sensational headlines and bold words like porn to get attention.
Stickam has not used porn to get users.
AT&t shareholders profit off of porn, AT&t shares lines with adult companies, should they also be avoided by children?
I think you have more chance of intercepting a dirty phone call with a cordless phone, yet you are quick to jump in and mention your kids and stickam. What other products and services do you keep away from your kids?
Video games?
TV?
Music?
Myspace?
Hey if you are one of those, that’s cool. Using tech crunch as a way to push conservative “family values” – that’s pretty lame. This is almost like one of those stories you see sent from the “family values” organizations that are going around the country pushing for legislation to shut down strip clubs, and restrict video game sales.
My company builds web sites and sometimes takes clients who want adult sites. Doesn’t mean we can’t make a non porn site.
Tech Crunch to stickam – hello kettle, this is pot…
New digg story – TC author blocks stickam (which doesn’t have porn) from kids – doesn’t block TC which frequently earns readership (and money) from porn application reviews.
Thanks for the laugh this morning. reminds of the story in AVN today about Ohio’s Citizens for Community Values leader being run by a three time divorce’ bankrupt porn addict.
Overheard from the Stickam office: “What do you mean you switched from Server A to Server B???!!!”
Huh? What? There is obviously a concern that the streams of data may cross, and innocent children may inadvertently be presented with adult material. However, as long as the systems are on different web servers and different database servers, then there should not be a problem.
There are millions of web sites out there that are hosted on shared servers, but there are very few (any? I’m not aware of any) instances of requesting site aaa and instead seeing data from site bbb.
If we’re going to question the adult industries server configurations, then let’s go ahead and carry our concerns of conflict-of-interest into the real world…. as mentioned by previous posts, numerous politicians and large corporations would be guilty if examined more closely.
I can certainly understand the suggested concern in this topic, but let’s not jump to screaming “fire” until we actual smell smoke or see flames.
We actually blogged on this last week:
http://parents....tickam-and-imvu
Not that the site was owned by pornographers, but rather that there is an interesting cross section of new products coming to market which allow unprecedented new ways for children to interact with other people (be it children or adults). We found a room the next day with two girls who claimed to be 17 doing a strip show for a bunch of guys. It degerenated quickly, including one guy’s video being pointed at his masturbation. It was, erm, interesting.
For pity’s sake, people, do you trust an eCommerce vendor to charge you for what’s in your shopping cart as opposed to what’s in somebody else’s shopping cart? Do expect to see your bank balance on the screen, or do you worry that it might have got crossed with someone else’s bank balance because they’re on the same server and run by the same people in the very same office? The whole idea of sending information in packets is based on the fact that the technology is pretty good at getting each packet to the correct destination.
If people want to boycott Stickam to express moral disapproval of part of their revenue stream, that’s obviously their right. But I don’t see a technology issue here.
WON’T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN??
thanks for the alarmist garbage
Well it really might not be as bad as it seems and might not even mean any thing. Mr. Wataru Takahashi has been a very successful business man and he definitely knows his target audience. So as far as I see it there isno harm at the user end to use the site.
Some years ago I worked for a large ISP (>1M users) that made a significant amount of money from advertising porn sites (by my estimation a significant price increase for DSL would have been needed if porn advertising was ceased). I was ran servers that had adverts for porn sites and servers that had users’ web sites (including some amateur porn and probably some children had web sites hosted there too).
I don’t think that there is a problem with this. When running an ISP if you give data to the wrong people then you risk the security of online banking and many other services that are significant. Regardless of the porn angle decent security and protection of users’ data is required.
Where can you find an ISP without some type of porn use anyway?
What about the postal system? I find that it’s not uncommon to receive parcels that are addressed to my neighbours and expect that other people have this problem too. I’m sure that it’s a regular occurrence for a Playboy subscription to go astray, but we don’t seem to get any news reports about that…
Oh no, oh no, the same company that owns pornographic websites owns sites aimed at children, the world is coming to an end. The next thing you know major corporate interests (Walmart, Walgreens and on and on) will make money off of tobacco…oh wait, they already do that. Oh well, tobacco only kills people.
OK, forget that analogy. The next thing you know major corporate interests that sell food to children are going to sell tobaocco that kills people and also product products that poison environment…of wait, they already do that.
Ya, I’ll be losing sleep over this tonight. But no doubt it’ll get a lot of play in the media. Gotta celebrate Mom and apple pie after all.
If you are a parent, watch what your goddamn kids are doing on the internet. Not doing so is just like sending your kid out into a big city, alone… there are plenty of good things and plenty of bad that might corrupt your precious baby.
Assuming that you are taking the road less traveled by actually paying attention to what your kids are doing, I think it’s great that you would be appalled by something akin to a strange man who really does just want to give your kid a lollipop, but the man lives with a Hannibal Lecter type. Good for you that take an active role in your child’s safety- online and off… and shame on the parents who would jump on this as yet another excuse to let your kids run amok while you enjoy your night out with friends, your soaps, your marathon WoW sessions, your cam-dating, etc etc.
I’m always leery of the posts that are essentially “warning to parents”– because they always seem to be missed by the real parents out there, and always seem to be carried on the shoulders of the real shitty parents.
Hi Duncan, I can certainly see your point, so as someone who isn’t a parent (but does have 10 nephews and nieces, so I’m no novice when it comes to kids) on the balance of things, this guy should have exercised some discretion with regards to his choice of business venture…
I’m not sure about allowing children to use other services that are owned by pornographers in general. But then again if the service has nothing to do with pornography at all, I don’t see any harm in that.
Right on the front page of Stickam is a link to Carmen24. Sexy photo links to a fully accessible ( no filters or adult only warnings) broadcast featuring partial nudity and sexy poses–chat, web cam, available.
Here’s the kicker. Postings on her page scream alerts about the site being a virus and the whole thing a massive scam.
Check it out–go to Stickam…look on front page (right).
I’m sorry, I don’t understand your point at all.
Why does it matter who owns a site? If, for example, Orbitz.com were owned by scat fetishists, would that make their travel deals less legitimate? Would you still shop there, but ban your kids?
I don’t understand what you think is going to happen — because Stickam has a sister site that serves porn, do you think your children are going to be *recruited* into pornography? Is there some invisible taint that’s going to magically spread through the tubes and *infect* them? Seriously, what are you afraid of?
To me, this reeks of a combination of prudishness and hysteria. “Oh, god, won’t someone please think of the CHILDREN?!”
The question was, “Would you let your kids use this site knowing it’s owned by a porn company?”. Okay, paraphased, but that was the basic question. I wouldn’t. Why? Because it’s a matter of how much I trust that company and personally, I don’t trust any company when it comes to the safety of my children. I trust myself and I trust their father and certain other family members. Maybe I’m over-protective but my kids are safe and I manage to do it without keeping them so sheltered that they are totally naive. Personally, I wouldn’t trust any cam company. There is no need for my young kids to be on the web where anyone can see them. I monitor their online activity. I use the parental controls that are packaged in Vista so I know what they’re doing on my computer and they do it in full view of me. My kids and I talk. I don’t restrict them from things without telling them why.
Some adult on xbox live said something to my 11 year old son about porn and that was the last time he talked to him. And yes, I was in the room with my son at the time and I took immediate action. Electronics do not babysit my children. Do I blame Microsoft? No. These are my kids. I can’t risk their safety no matter how much it might make me seem irrational or over protective or just plain un-cool.
Leslie– right on– agreed on all points. Thanks for taking the road less traveled. My parents were the same way and I bitched and moaned for years. But now I’m very grateful that I was raised the way I was. I am a well adjusted, social, and successful member of society. Keep it up and your kids will be off to a great start.
I think that you can find adult content almost anywhere – Google profits from xxx ads, so does that mean we shouldn’t use Google to search the net? The arguement is ridiculous… Many companies profit from adult content in one way or another..
I will point out however that if I had children that even came close to using a webcam, I would definitely monitor their activity VERY closely or not allow them to use it at all. If Stickam does have younger people using the service, then there should be no links to adult content though…
The people behind Stickam run a business, I don’t think they’d be dumb enough to cross their lines of business..
Jackie Treehorn is in the internet biz now?
very valid reasons for concern here ..
If live video is going to become a mainstream phenomenon (which I think it is), it’s going to be critical for the companies within the industry to make mainstream people comfortable with using their services.
At Ustream (http://www.ustream.tv), we’re very specific–our terms of service prohibit all illegal and/or obscene content. We want the Ustream community to feel safe for everyone who uses it, including the churches, presidential candidates, and even government agencies who currently use Ustream.
It doesn’t seem like Mr. Takahashi and his team have violated any laws or regulations, and it’s unfortunate that their service isn’t being judged on its own merits.
The reality is that in a rapidly emerging industry, there *is* a lot of uncertainty, and part of the job for all members of the industry is to do everything they can to reassure potential users of its safety and appropriateness.
This is vaguely reminiscent of the Jack McGeorge story from five years back – he was a UN weapons inspector and leather fetishist.
Well, I did say vaguely reminiscent.
I find it interesting that Mr Takahashi has chosen to invest in webcam streaming. Could it be the case that content proliferation has started to dent the profitability of his other business? Excuse me while I go off and do some market research.
kraft cheese was once owned by phillip morris (altria group), along with General Foods and Nabisco, but did tha that make the food and beverage unsafe and suspectible to tobacco marketing?