You know those discoveries you make, that you wish you hadn’t? Where you want to go back in time to the place of innocence, before you knew what you now know? I made one last night. And I just can’t shake it.
This world of social media is a strange one. I’ve been blogging for two years. Two years of sharing the details of my life with virtual strangers across the globe. Two years of sharing photographs, stories and experiences. Two years of spilling my soul. Through Google Analytics and a basic understanding of humanity, I wasn’t naive enough to think that every single visitor was a fellow parent with values aligned to mine. But, it was easy to pretend. The over-sharing never really bothered me, and I felt enough distance from the creeps on the other end of the computer to be comfortable. Before.
My brother shared a site called ChatRoulette on Facebook, and I checked it out. It’s a a new website that connects you face-to-face, via web-cam, to random people all over the world. It’s voyeurism at its best– live, countless, free web-cams, just a click away. And it’s growing, rapidly. In December there were 300 users, mostly friends of the 17-year-old high school student in Moscow who created it. Last night? 37,000 were logged in. At once.
Strangers stare at you for a moment, deciding if they want to click next, to find someone more appealing than you, or invest a minute or two of their precious time on you. It’s a total flashback to junior high school– will the cool kids accept you? Will you be met with laughter and mocking or acceptance? Will someone take the time to get to know you, or judge you in half a second and walk away? More often than not, it’s the latter.
During my few minutes of exploration, I came across a group of sorority looking girls who scoffed at the schlumpy looking mom on the other end of the computer. Pre-partiers drinking and dressed to the nines. Groups of teenage boys with only one hand visible and hopeful looks on their faces. An older man who I swear I saw on America’s Most Wanted a decade ago. More than a few body parts and many Mardi Gras type requests as well. But, by far, the most disturbing were the children, yes, children, I saw.
Intriguing as this site may be, as a parent, I am disgusted. I am horrified. It’s not about building relationships, like we do here. It’s building disaster. How long before someone runs into the prick who blew him off on the site and retaliates? Or the person he shared too intimate details with? How easy it would be to record all of the encounters and post them for the world to see. Sex and violence will reign free as the site continues to grow. And the kids? I shudder to think of the connections they could be making. Can you imagine what they could stumble across? It’s a Law & Order SVU in the making. A juicy one.
If you have kids who have access to computers, talk to them. If they haven’t discovered the site, their friends may have, and we all know how quickly things spread in this virtual world of ours. And this one? Is nothing but trouble.
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if you truly loved your children, you wouldn’t spend your time worrying about what they are and are not being exposed to. the world is theirs to do with what they will – you should have read the fine print before bringing another life into this world. educate them and let them make decisions on their own.
If you don’t like who you’re talking to you can always click Next. It’s really not a very dangerous site.
BUT YAH LETS SHELTER OUR KIDS FROM EVERYTHING IN THIS WORLD GOOD IDEA
I was a teenager not too long ago myself, and it doesn’t matter if your computer is in a common room (ours was). It doesn’t matter if you check their browser history (they’ll be smart enough to delete it; I was). You can try to control them all you like, but the fact is that will probably do things you don’t like on the internet. Think of it this way; would you rather have them chatting explicitly online, or having real sex?
I think the important thing to emphasize with kids is how to prevent their internet use from spilling over into real life, and warn them about sharing too much information. Other than that, there’s very little you can do… they will find a way.
As for your fears about chat roulette, I don’t think it’s going to result in the destruction of society like your post implies. (In fact, it makes me think you’ve seen very little of the internet… ever heard of “4chan”? ) Most websites like this are a flash in the pan.
I love 4chan!
/b/
i have to say that as a young parent of 2 little girls, i do alot more stuff then my parents did . lol however i went on that site recently as well and had some pretty nice conversations( ok actually it was only 3 conversations but they lasted at least an hour each) it was cool getting to see people in different countries and learn there thoughts. on the other hand…. for every person i found that talked to me at least 10 others were either clickers( people who dont think ur cute enough etc etc) or the “naughty” people. i saw lots of naughty people on that site, however nothing shocked me or my husband more than we were clicked next and saw a father with his daughter(who wasnt more than 4 yrs by the looks of it) watching all these cams…… i was horrified. as a mom i try to keep up with what is the “trend” so as my kids get older i know what the possiblities for trouble are but to let my babies on that website ohhhhh uhuh. ty for the informative post though , liked it
I am a 15 year old girl and I just recently found out about chatroulette.com. I found out about it on omegle.com, another site I won’t be going on any time soon, and I also heard of it on a new episode of South Park.
I found chatroulette to be a very… disgusting, for the lack of a better word, and I don’t appriciate the people on it. I just think that the parents of children have to teach them to be resonsible, especially when using the internet. My parents definitly succeeded in teaching me how to use the internet properly, as well as to be respectful and responsible when using it.
But, the world isn’t all happy rainbows and unicorns, there’s gonna be some weirdos out there. And, yeah, that’s scary, but I understand that because of what my parents taught me. Because of them I want to make the world a less scary place. Parents can’t hide their kids from the world forever, but that dosen’t mean you can’t make is any less dangerous when they do start venturing out on their own. Knowledge is a powerful thing, and all parents need to share it correctly with their children.
If you heard of chatroulette through south park you knew what content would be on the website, but you continue to go on it anyway? Seems like you aren’t very responsible are you? Sure you’re parents can teach you the pros/cons of the internet but what really drags kids to this website is curiosity. Oh yeah, and proofreading is also a powerful thing.
Many of you have such a carebear attitude towards chatroulette. Past a certain age (no not 7, but maybe like 14) kids that are exposed to this stuff do so on their own free will. While the choices they make may not be the best it’s important to let them discover things. Afterall, not all of the people on that site have only 1 hand showing…
It just annoys me to see people posting things like “Oh no, I am soooo horrified!!” Gimme a break woman.
ACK!!! I have heard about chatroulette before from my friends.. I have seen a few videos of ‘strange’ experiences’ posted on youtube and it, well just wasn’t my style. This is incredibly disturbing though. The access and freedom the internet provides is great, but the fact that is allows kids to act in such an awful manner is really scary. I just pray I can educate my child about the dangerous of the internet before its his time. thanks for sharing.
Alright what you radical right wing jesus freaks need to learn is how kids think. The more you restrict kids from things the more they’re going to rebel. You need to find balance. Not all things seen on chatroulette is bad. I’ve met some nice people from around the world that just want to meet new people and I still keep in touch with them. It’s basically a revolutionized pen pal system. Sure you stumble upon male parts more often than naught but you don’t judge a website just on its bad features. You’re no better than communist china, trying to block every little thing from your children. I have friends whose parents block everything from them, and you know what happens? they just go to a friends house to look at stuff they can’t look at home. So for all you paranoid soccer moms out there just chill out and let your teenagers explore the world on their own, their going to find out about it anyway. If you feel that their behavior is out of hand then take action, discipline them. Now this is the perspective of a 16 year old boy. Not some stuck up 15 year old girl or some over protective mom. I can assure you I am a functioning member of society as every one of you, I work, go to school, and invest for college. So what is the point of blocking every “obscene” website from your child?
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