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If This Is The Future Of The Internet, I'm Pulling The Plug
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Feb 16, 2010 6:47 am
8181 Views
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I haven't blogged for a while, but some new developments that came to my attention pried me out of the blogging apathy that's gotten hold of me because I felt a serious need to get the word out there.
A friend of mine was freaking out over the IM because she just caught her teenaged daughter on both the chatroulette and Omegle sites, which are apparently the newest trends to sweep the internet. The premise of chatroulette is that you can cam and chat with random strangers matched up for you by the site, and if you're not feeling some chemistry, you can click on to the next random profile. Naively, I asked her what was wrong with that--the premise seemed harmless enough. She dared me to check them both out.
So check them out I did, first logging on to chatroulette (with my cam not enabled--wasn't going to put myself out there just on a whim), where within 10 seconds I realized why she was freaking out.
Perverts. A whole lot of them. A whole lot of bird flipping, cyber soliciting, a whole slew of horny college boys asking you if you're a female and would you turn your camera on and raise your blouse so they can check your boobs out. Disturbingly, kids on cam, making me wonder where the hell their parents are considering the plethora of perverts I encountered there. Close ups of the male organ being worked to a frenzy, making me wish whoever those idiots were on the other end of cyberspace would pull a nerve and do themselves a major injury. I lasted all of 10 minutes.
Omegle wasn't much better, although this one had no webcam involved, just random chatting with strangers whose age or gender remain unknown unless it was volunteered. A lot of kids on that site. A LOT of kids. A lot of perverts as well, and boy, did I have fun with THOSE. My foray into the Omegle world went thus:
You are now chatting with a random stranger. Start typing!
Stranger: Hi
Me: Hi
Stranger: asl?
Me: Female, somewhere in Asia. You?
Stranger: Milano, male.
Me: Oh, that's lovely, Italy's wonderful.
Stranger: Can I ask you a question?
Me: Shoot.
Stranger: Would you like to see Italian c**k?
Me: No thanks, I bet I've seen better salami. *Disconnect*
You are now chatting with a random stranger. Start typing!
Stranger: Hey!
Me: Hey!
Stranger: I've got a big d***!
Me: I bet mine's bigger than yours!
Stranger: WTF??? *Disconnect*
You are now chatting with a random stranger. Start typing!
Stranger: I'm a girl with big boobs and I want to talk dirty!
Me: Honey, I'm gay. Bet they're implants, too.
Stranger: *Disconnect*
But there were some connections that were actually worthwhile. The young Korean college student who wanted to be a policeman and needed someone to practice his English with, and was so profoundly grateful for the impromptu English lessons I gave him that it touched me. A 17 year old new mother who needed a break from breastfeeding, and was feeling depressed and disconnected from her friends. A 19 year old young man who was so impressed with the fact that I knew who Yngwie Malmsteen was that he dropped his guard and took me to his metal band's FB page, pronouncing me "major cool" for a 41 year old matron.
On the whole though, I have a beef with these sites, simply for the fact that they are SO unregulated it's only a matter of time before some pedophile pretending to be 17 catches a 14 year old unawares (and yes, some admit to being actually younger than 14--I'm just hoping they're all undercover cops patrolling the site, though that's too much to wish for), if it hasn't happened already.
So this is really me sounding the alarm to parents out there, and to those who have young, computer savvy relatives.
As if we needed any more reasons to be vigilant over the web.
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