to complain about cbeebies Swashbuckle game?

[negrilbaby]

Chatting to DS(5yrs) at lunch today and he was talking about taking a photo of himself using the computer.
We queried what he was talking about and it appears he was playing a game on cbeebies site - Swashbuckle - with his little sister and they took photos using the computer's internal webcam. www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/swashbuckle-online/games/swashbuckle-yourself/
The game is relatively innocent. They post a picture of themselves and decorate it as a pirate. And I know they should be supervised when on the computer. The computer is downstairs in a family room.
I went on line to check and they simply hit one button to activate the web-cam. Am I being overly paranoid or does it seem, in this climate, more than a little wrong to have a game aimed at pre-schoolers that asks children to take a photo of themselves?
Very concerned that cbeebies have made it so simple for a child to activate a webcam.

A number of games on the cbeebies website use the webcam. I have no problem with it because when DS is on the computer I am sat with him and will be for as long as he is young enough to play cbeebies games!

Also it's worth using a browser like Firefox and adjusting the settings so that the history is not saved. You can also set up so that nothing is stored on the pc.

Hope this helps.

After DH got the beejesus scared out of him by a malicious ransomware programme which used his picture by taking over the camera, both of our laptops now have stickers over the webcam. You could do this if concerned?

I have disabled the webcam - may stick a sticker over it too (nice non-technical remedy!)
I hadn't realised the use of webcam images was so prevalent in cbeebies games - we don't use them very often. It seems like I am in a very small minority worrying about their usage.

Moxiegirl, the photo ends up in the cache on the web browser from where it can be taken by even a fairly simple piece of malicious software or a web crawler like Google Chrome

But any piece of malicious software on the computer could also enable the camera at any time and stream live video to anyone, no need for them to take that picture, it could get any wanted. Chrome is also not a web crawler, it's a web browser... It's a good idea to ensure you don't have malicious software on your computer, however if you did get infected with one which simply uploaded pictures of kids in pirate outfits you got off very lightly.

YABU, it's trivial enough to disable the camera permanently, you should be supervising anyone who is interested enough in that show to access it.

OP, I think the Daily Mail have a job going in their "knee jerk over-reaction" department. Perhaps you should apply?

pmsl skying - op, yes contact the dm - give us all a giggle :-) & fyi your dc are to young to be left unsupervised on the laptop & out of interest what on earth do you think is going to happen to the photo?

It's a face shot of children dressed as pirates, it's a bit of fun. I doubt it saves them to a public website either. People who make websites like this are just as aware of paedophiles as you are.

Just disable the webcam if it bothers you. My children play these games when I am there - I dont hover over them but I do sit where I can see what they are doing (i.e mumsnetting on my laptop ),

Definitely your responsibility to monitor your own children, not Cbeebies responsibility to only make games that 5 year olds can play unsupervised.