Habbo Hotel: private equity group ditches stake over paedophile fears Habbo Hotel is aimed at children aged 13 upwards, and used by some as young as nine. A major British private equity group is to ditch its shareholding in the company behind Habbo Hotel, the game-based social networking website popular with children and teenagers, following allegations that online paedophiles have been targeting the site's users. The 3i group, which owns 16% of Sulake, the Finnish company that owns Habbo, said in a statement late on Wednesday: "3i has actively supported the Sulake board in determining the right course of action in these very challenging circumstances. Following a board meeting today, we have resigned our board position and will cease to be a shareholder in the company. Tesco, WH Smith and Game announced earlier on Wednesday that they had stopped selling gift cards for use on the site following a Channel 4 News investigation that found that Habbo, which has around 10 million visitors a month, allowed users to place pornographic and violent messages. Habbo, in which users create online alter egos, or avatars, to explore a world of brightly coloured teddy bears and cartoon characters, is aimed at children aged 13 upwards and used by some as young as nine. Channel 4 News producer Rachel Seifert spent two months playing on Hotel Habbo, visiting the site 50 times. Posing as an 11-year-old girl, she found the speech balloons through which users communicate were often full of pornographic chat. She said: "Within two minutes I was being asked individually: 'Do you have a webcam?', 'Can we chat on MSN, on Skype?' I was also, within a couple of minutes, asked to strip, fully naked, and asked what would I do on a webcam. Not only were such activities not blocked, but the infrastructure of the online world appeared geared to such sexualisation, with some rooms given names such as "naughty nightclub." Sulake announced earlier this week it was blocking all chats between Habbo users while the claims were investigated. The company's chief executive, Paul LaFontaine, said: "I am greatly saddened that following reports of abusive behaviours amongst a very small part of the Habbo community we have taken the decision to mute all conversations across the site. We are still reviewing our long-term plans for the Habbo community, and would like to thank our millions of loyal users for their support at this challenging time. This decision has not been taken lightly and underlines the company's continuing commitment to ensure that all our site users remain safeguarded from inappropriate behaviour and conversations. Our internal investigation is currently ongoing, but we will be sure to inform all users of further developments in the coming days and weeks.