An unpleasant phenomenon

19.03.2010

At Chatroulette you can meet people through a web camera, and no one controls what you get to see. We encourage parents to pay attention.

by Sigrun Landro Thomassen

Kids and Media have received several enquiries regarding chatroulette.com, a website that offers the public an opportunity to see and chat with random people all over the world. Parents are uncertain about what this phenomenon actually involves and how to relate to it.

Chatroulette generates live webcam connections between strangers. Even if you do not use your own camera you can still see and chat to other people. When you wish to move on to another person you do so, simply by clicking “next”.

Explicit material
At Chatroulette it is possible to get in contact with interesting people and find new friends, but this website has mostly gained notoriety due to it being an unregulated service where anyone can do whatever they want. As a result, Chatroulette has rapidly become a haven for exhibitionists and voyeurs.

During a chat session you are likely to come across people flashing their genitals, men masturbating or other sexual activities. A lot of people just want to amuse themselves by witnessing other people’s reactions to unexpected visual impressions, and post video clips or pictures instead of a live feed through a web camera. Either way, the chances are that you will come across explicit and disturbing material.

A lot of children are using Chatroulette even though the service has a formal age limit of 16 years. There is no form of age control when registering as a new user. Although the terms of use state that Chatroulette "does not tolerate broadcasting obscene, offensive or pornographic material" and offers users the option to report unsuitable content, the restrictions do not seem to prevent people from broadcasting sexually explicit material.

No age control
A lot of parents are worried about children’s use of this kind of service.

“The reactions we have received are all about experiences where children have faced men who exposed themselves or encouraged girls to do the same,” says Oystein Samnoen, Director of Kids and Media.

Kids and Media are very critical to Chatroulette, in particular the lack of age control.

“I am very critical to this concept. As far as I can see there is no system to verify that the users are older than 16,” says Samnoen.

Talk about the use of web cameras and online material
Samnoen encourages parents to talk to their children about using a web camera:

“You don’t have to talk specifically about Chatroulette. You might have a general discussion, where you talk about how to have a healthy and critical sense regarding who you choose to chat with and what is acceptable to say and do in front of a web camera.”

If you are uncertain about which websites your children have visited, it might be a good idea to sit down with them and go through the Internet log folder together whilst talking about what they look up on the Internet and what they might come across.

“As a phenomenon, Chatroulette is just as much about how other people use the service as it is about which visual impressions you might encounter. It is therefore just as important to talk about which websites are ok to visit, as it is to talk about how you yourself are using a web camera,” Samnoen says.

Samoen also encourages parents to invite their children to talk to them if they have had an uncomfortable online experience.