For seven weeks, three journalism students at Mid Sweden University pretended to be 14-year-old Sara, Tindra and Hanna on Wordfeud, a gaming app used by tens of millions of users of all ages.

In total, reporters met 858 opponents from each account. 55 of the opponents sent messages to "Sara", "Hanna" and "Tindra" with content classified by the police as sexually abusive.

In some of the roughest messages reporters receive, a man, whom they call Per, describes his sexual fantasies that include Sara.

"Uses the app for anonymity"

When the reporters confront him, Per says that he wrote to Sara because he "thought it was exciting to get them ( young girls, editor's note ) lit."

When asked why he uses Wordfeud, he replies that it is because of the anonymity.

He says he regrets it and that he should never do it again.

The man: "Have huge anxiety"

Another man who sends messages asks Hanna if she "has a string" and says he wants to feel on her chest.

They decide to call each other - but instead of talking to 14-year-old Hanna, he is confronted by the reporters.

- Well, I have nothing good to say in this ... I can stand for that. I do not want anything with this as well. I feel really anxious about it, he says. 

Abuse of children online is increasing

In addition to the fake account, the journalism students have also talked to several girls who say they have been subjected to sexual harassment at Wordfeud.

According to the police, abuse of children online is increasing.

- Where there are children, there are the perpetrators too. These perpetrators are very good at screening out who it is who is a child, says Andreas Grym, investigator at the police's IT crime center in Gothenburg, to the reporters.

Wordfeud: "We cannot be held responsible"

Word feud developer Bertheussen's IT says in an email to reporters that they are working on methods to prevent sexual harassment but that they "under no circumstances" can be responsible for what is written there.

- In addition to making it easier to report inappropriate behavior, we also work with a function that makes it possible to turn off the chat when playing with temporary opponents, says Håkon Bertheussen.

Read the full review here.