On Mirror Mirror, Todd Sampson went on Omegle. It left viewers - and parents - terrified.

Listen to this story being read by Katie Stow, here.

Most Gen Z'ers will know what Omegle is. They may think about it as harmless humour. A bit weird. Or super creepy and concerning. And it's the latter viewpoint that is the most accurate. And that's what has parents concerned. 

Omegle markets itself as a free platform where you can "meet great new friends" on the internet. It's a website where users can either message or video chat with a complete stranger, with users randomly paired with another person online to communicate one-on-one.

It pulls in millions and millions of users across the globe each week. 

I can remember as a young teen going on Omegle with my group of friends, waiting in anticipation to see who we would be matched with. More often than not it was a middle aged adult man. Occasionally you would come across someone masturbating on the other end, squealing with your group of friends and moving onto the next chatroom. I would have been 13. 

Looking back on those experiences with adult hindsight, it's pretty terrifying to think those men had access to young kids so easily.

The chatrooms are completely anonymous, meaning if something on the video chat occurs which is non-consensual, there's not a whole lot you can do to properly report it. Fortunately though, the anonymous setting does somewhat protect young people who use the platform from predators lurking in the dark corners of it. But the bar is low for Omegle.

Although the terms and conditions of Omegle require the users to be 18 and older, it's fair to say that it's incredibly easy to bypass - only a click of a box away.

On Monday night, viewers got to see for themselves what exactly happens on Omegle via Todd Sampson's new documentary Mirror, Mirror airing on Network 10. 

As part of the show's premise, Sampson investigated how the internet is affecting our relationships and what impact this is having on our lives. And he started with the fact that young kids are given phones at younger and younger ages as the years go on.

In the documentary, Sampson worked alongside a 19-year-old actress who was posing as a 14-year-old girl on Omegle.

The actress' face was what appeared on the webcam feed, while Sampson typed the messages. The experiment was conducted under the supervision of former WA police officer and child cybersafety expert Paul Litherland. 

The actress was then randomly paired with a man who was making licking motions with his tongue and asking the actress to "show her feet". He began asking for a strip tease. When the 24-year-old man was told that the actress was '14', he continued to sexually harass her, demanding that she lift up her shirt. 

"Mum's downstairs," Sampson typed into the chatbox, pretending to be the actress. "Sorry I'm not going to show - too scared."

The man then immediately began to perform a sex act on himself.

"Oh my God! Oh my God! That is disgusting! That's scarring. I feel sick. You should be in jail!" Todd yelled to the man when he realised what was happening.

Watch Todd Sampon speak about this experience. Post continues below.

Reflecting on all that he found from the investigation, Sampson said it terrified him to see the danger Omegle poses to kids unaware of who is on the other side of the video camera.

"My teenage kids have only swam in the internet water and that's all they know. For them this is how they communicate. The thought of taking away their phones is like saying to a kid, 'I'd rather you not breathe'," he said on The Project. 

Sampson then noted that according to the experts in this field - including psychologists he spoke to for the documentary - taking away phones isn't the answer. Rather it's about honest and open communication and being aware of what your kids may be doing online.

"Kids know more than we do online. Seventy per cent of kids are hiding something from their parents online. I believe that statistic is probably higher. And if we police them, all we do is drive it underground. Removing the internet is not the solution. The solution is regulation."

As cybersafety expert Kirra Pendergast told Mamamia's No Filter podcast, kids and young teens often don't have the maturity to fully realise the repercussions of their actions online, nor the motives of others.

"Kids are curious. When they get a direct message request or something of that nature, of course they're going to click on it. They comply. It can lead to grooming, sextortion and more. At high schools I'll ask a full room of kids, 'Who has been asked for inappropriate photos?' and 90 per cent of the room will put up their hand. And then I say, 'Who has been asked for photos of their feet?' and hands will go up again. They then proceed to burst into fits of laughter because they don't understand what it actually means," Pendergast said.

"That question is often the start of online grooming."

Image: Getty/Omegle/Mamamia.

"Kids often don't see the danger there. It looks seemingly innocent but it can very sinister."

A lawsuit is underway at the moment in the US where an American man was convicted of abusing an underage girl via Omegle. The underage girl - now an adult woman - launched a lawsuit accusing the video chat website of knowingly matching kids with adults. 

In 2014, the then 30-something-year-old man was paired with the then-11-year-old girl, where he proceeded to sextort her. He forced her to send naked photos and videos of herself engaging in sexual acts, according to the lawsuit. 

The man was then criminally charged in 2018 for his actions. He pleaded guilty to internet luring and distribution of child pornography and was sentenced to prison.  

In Australia, Omegle remains available to use - even though it's listed on the eSafety Commissioner website with a warning sign: "Users may encounter sexualised content and inappropriate behaviour anywhere on the site. Omegle does not verify the age of users."

As Sampson noted, he hopes that more is done to confront platforms like Omegle and the danger they pose.

"After I did this experiment, I went home to my two teenage daughters and I said, 'Girls I just want to warn you about this site, it's filled with predators and it's a problem'. And they both looked to the ground and said everyone had been on that site for years, saying everyone at school is on that site," he said.

"In the online space there is no protection - it's unpoliced and unregulated. So they can get at their fingertips whatever they want."

You can watch Mirror, Mirror on TenPlay now. 

Feature Image: Network 10.