In February 2021, Channel 4 released a television series documenting a specialist covert police unit tracking sexual predators online. Chat Avenue was among the social media and messaging apps named to have allegedly been used by the child predators. On September 18, 2018, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced the arrests of 24 alleged child predators in “Operation Open House,” a multi-agency undercover operation targeting men who allegedly were using social media in an attempt to lure underage girls and boys for sexual activity. Some chat rooms within the site, which target younger audiences, are known to be used by law enforcement to catch online predators.
