Sting reveals Skype a paedophile playground

The Sunday Times tasked some of its reporters to pretend they were young girls and sign themselves into Skype chat rooms to ensnare budding paedophiles.

The scam worked very easily and at least three British men were caught attempting to meet the 'girls' who they believed they'd 'groomed' online.

The ease with which the reporters were able to pose as underage girls is probably the most shocking aspect of the whole 'sting' operation.

Skype's chief security officer, Kurt Sauer, was forced to admit to the newspaper, "We haven't found a way to address each of these issues."

One of the problems of any peer-to-peer network, such as Skype, is that it is pretty easy to retain anonymity. Unlike traditional mobile and fixed telephone systems, with Skype it is perfectly possible to avoid going through a traditional telecoms switch.

It's only if you break out of Skype - using SkypeOut, for example, that a call becomes traceable. As the INQ pointed out recently - Skype to Skype calls would be exceedingly difficult for the authorities to monitor.

Skype will probably be forced to adopt the tactics of rival services which still support chat rooms and police what happens online. Warning youngsters, for example, that it is a very bad idea to give out a mobile phone number. µ

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