Inside the teen dating site Snog where perverts target underage girls to groom with sick messages

“I’D like to see dirty pics of you”.

The message flashes onto my screen, just moments after I told him I was 15.

His name is Andre, and we “met” through snog.fm – a website based on a hit BBC Three TV show that allows people to rate each other as “snog, marry, avoid”.

And within minutes of me creating a profile with a photo of my 15-year-old self, I had already received “snogs” from accounts with names like “grabatit” while anonymous stranger “justheretowatch” rates me as a “marry”.

The website was recently thrown into the spotlight when it was used by web designer Gareth Hughes, then 36, to seduce a teen.

He was jailed for six years and eight months after admitting a string of offences, including having a secret sexual relationship for four years between 2012 and 2016.

But despite insisting “security and safe guarding” their users is a main priority, and changing the website to become 18+ only, it’s only too easy for a vulnerable teen to sign up.

And while parents may not have heard of the website before, the site can attract more than 1.5m page views a day.

Although it is unclear just how many accounts are registered, there are more than 6million interactions between users recorded - and they're still growing.

It's a parents' worst nightmare, with kids easily able to sign up and chat to strangers in mere minutes.

The Sun Online set up such an account – posing as a schoolgirl on the seedy website.

Users can sign up through an email address or Facebook account, easily lying about their age to gain access to the site.

At one point, my account was suspended after moderators realised I had described myself as 15 in my "about me" section".

But I could sign up again straight away, using another fake email address and continued to chat.

One account, @justheretowatch, is quick to message me and ask for my kik account, another messaging app that is able to send and receive photos - and that cops have been warned is prone to be abused by paedophiles.

Trading messages on kik, I tell him I’m at school, and only 15 when he asks what I’m up to.

Within minutes, he asks: “I mean, I’d love to see…”

I ask: “What do you mean?”

He replies: “I’d love to see dirty stuff off of you. I’d like to see dirty pics of you.”

I protest, telling him I’m uncomfortable, and that no one has asked me for pictures before.

The call centre worker replies: “They’re idiots, you’re super hot.

“What? You’re gorgeous, don’t even.”

I tell him that I’m shy, to which he replies: “Shy is for ugly people, babydoll.”

Has your son or daughter been targeted? Contact the Sun Online via email brittany.vonow@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368

Another man, claiming to be a 25-year-old Rob from India, sparks up a conversation on snog.fm.

I tell him that I’m 15 and live in London – with the anonymous man saying: “Really? You’re 15. Look I’m not a pedo. Hahah!”

None of the men ever tried to meet up with her, but she was sick of how sexual it became.

She said: “One conversation put me off completely when I was 16. The guy - who claimed to be 19 - went all in with the dirty talk. It made me feel really disgusting, dirty and weird. I logged off and was like ‘I’m never going back to that again’.

“He was talking about how he’d like to see me naked. That was a tipping point. It was a bit disgusting and weird. There were too many creepy messages from creepy people, I would never do it again.”

Tony Stower, Head of NSPCC Child Safety Online, said: "This is a chilling example of how adults can use social media to bombard children with sexual messages.