Kids 'Amino App' Asks Girl, 10, For Topless Photo To 'Verify' Her Age

By Scott McDonald On 7/29/19 at 7:40 PM EDT

A 10-year-old girl was playing a dress-up anime game on a children's cartoon app when a message popped up, asking her for a picture of her "bare chest" or be "permanently banned" from the site.

The private message showed up on the Gacha Life forum on the Amino app. They claimed to be a female, and that the app was a "safe space for young girls." It went as far to say that girls under 14 could take a photo "with a bra" if they did not feel comfortable.

Cahla McGarry saw this message that interrupted her game, according to The Sun in the United Kingdom:

"Welcome to this amino! My name is Mandy and i [sic] work with amino! So if you didn't know. This is a safe space for young girls. We require users to be 14 and younger. If you fit these requirements you can be here."

Here's the part of the message that caused the girl to not answer, and then go directly to her mother who could view it.

"We also have to make sure that all members here are girls. To verify this I will need from you a photo of your bare chest (with a bra on if you feel uncomfortable) and your age. This is just an extra security feature but all members must do this. Users that refuse to do this will be permanently banned."

Cahla's mom is Nicola McGarry, a 41-year-old school teacher who often tells her daughter to beware of speaking to strangers online. The mom said the app message shows just how easy it is for predators to work their way to children

"I was scared. It felt as if they had intruded into our home," Nicola said. "Although it's probably someone thousands of miles away, it really felt like an intrusion into our privacy."

Gacha Life is one forum on the Amino app, which is a community where people who have similar interests can chat in rooms, through forums and participate in fan groups. Cahla plays the game to share her creativity with other players close to her age who also have similar creativity and interests.

Playing the game last week is when the message popped up that didn't quite seem right.