WATCH ABOVE: A 17-year-old who had his photo snapped in a bathroom stall at Fairview may have blown the lid off a sex ring operating in the Pointe-Claire mall. Rachel Lau has more.
MONTREAL — It seems like just innocent graffiti, the kind that can be found in almost every public bathroom.
But take a closer look, and the writing is actually the first step to an underground culture that trades sex.
“In a bathroom, in a public place, a semi-public place, you might get caught, you might not,” said James Pfaus, a sexual behaviour professor at Concordia University.
“You’re on the edge and that edge then makes the sexual gratification all the greater.”
Instructions on what to do are written in plain sight.
READ MORE: Alleged victim of a Fairview Pointe-Claire Peeping Tom speaks out
“Once you’ve made eye contact, once you’ve smiled, then people might just go somewhere else,” explained Roberto Ortiz, a gay rights activist with Rezo-Sante.
“The other person follows, so that there’s the ‘I’m leaving, but I’m actually inviting you to follow me.'”
The messages are essentially instructions, and will ultimately lead people to a website called squirt.org.
It lists public places across the city of Montreal where men can meet for a casual sexual encounter.
“We do like to inform people of the different things that they have to think about,” said Ortiz.
“In the end, it’s a personal decision that every man makes.”
Some of the places listed on the website include universities, gyms, public parks and many malls, including Fairview Pointe-Claire.
Watch: Teen speaks out about encounter in Fairview Pointe-Claire bathroom
Matthew Tod, a 17-year-old boy from Pierrefonds said he believes he was sexually assaulted on a trip to the Sears bathroom at the mall last week.
“He went into the second stall, pulled out a phone and took a photo of me.”
“By the time I got out, he had already left,” Tod told Global News.
Global News spoke to security at the Fairview Pointe-Claire mall.
They said they were not aware the mall was a hook-up hotspot and now will let the police investigate.
The website’s owner sent Global News a written statement, which read:
“Our site is for adults and we are very vigilant about making the age restrictions clear.
We put alerts on the location and email our users in the region to encourage them to be safe and responsible.”
However, the incident has raised questions about safety and the risks involved when strangers approach teens in public bathrooms.
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