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?