A WEBSITE that allows voyeurs to watch people inside their homes via their own webcams includes victims from Sussex.

The Russian website has more than 584 feeds from locations in the UK that show children's bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, factories and shops.

There are four feeds in Brighton and Hove - one shockingly showing live video from the lounge of a Brighton resident. On the wall are easily identifiable pictures of children.

Another from Brighton shows a camera facing what appears to be a car park. Other streams showed a man in Crawley watching television on his sofa while one from Worthing is focused on the photocopying area of an office. The website owners can access the webcams because the password has not been changed from the manufacturer’s default.

As well as featuring hundreds of British cameras without consent, the bizarre website broadcasts videos from more than 10,000 others around the world.

Patricia Maggs, 63, of Southwick, recalled a similar incident with her webcam last year.

She said: “I was on the internet and all of a sudden a screen came up claiming to be Cheshire Police that asked for £100 because I had apparently been looking at dodgy websites, which I hadn’t.

“All of a sudden my webcam came on and it took a picture of me. I now cover up the camera at all times and daren’t use it. It’s very creepy and weird.”

Despite global condemnation the site, which has been operating for a month, has continued to transmit images of cots and bedrooms in which children could be seen.

Information commissioner Christ-opher Graham said it may take some time to shut the website down - but assured anybody who realises they are featured on the site to simply change the passwords of their webcams.

Hugh Boyes from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) said: “It is common practice for many networked products like webcams, routers and network attached storage devices to have either no password set or a published default password set when they are first installed.

“To protect their security and privacy users need to ensure that these devices are correctly set up and where applicable new passwords or PINs are set. It is basic cyber hygiene like this which helps protect the security and privacy of children and it is particularly important where devices such as webcams are installed in bedrooms or other private spaces.”