More and more people visit the stranger webcam chat site, Chatroulette, raising concerns about Internet safety

By Darlene Pham
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Junior Sara Zhang sees and talks to people from all over the world, people she’s never met that is. By using a social web site called Chatroulette, Zhang is randomly paired with strangers and converses with them.

“I only ever go on it if my boredom is ridiculous. It quickly became an addicting Web site. I got my friend hooked on it too, and we would go on it occasionally to mess with people or just have fun,” Zhang said.

Chatroulette, a social networking site created by 17-year old Andrey Ternovskiy in November 2009, is designed to allow users to be paired up with other users at random. Once users have been paired up with each other, they can proceed to talk to or “next” the partner. By nexting someone, users can pick and choose the person with whom they communicate.

While this feature is available to allow users to protect themselves from undesirable people, there is still a possibility of danger as with any social networking site.

Sergeant Phil Hobson, the school’s resource officer with the Carmel Police Department, said he agrees. “I feel like as with any internet usage, there are risks involved. There’s a lot of anonymity on the internet and it’s hard to verify who you’re talking to,” he said.

According to enough.org, a Web site sponsored by Enough is Enough which advocates internet safety for children and families, 52 percent of teenagers have given out personal information to a stranger online.

Hobson said this is one of the biggest dangers of internet usage. “Any information you wouldn’t post on a bulletin board in your school or living room at home, you shouldn’t place on the Internet because once you do, you can’t get it back,” he said.

Zhang said Chatroulette is only dangerous if users give out their personal information; otherwise, it’s safe. “There’s no way for them to know anything about you unless you tell them. It could be dangerous, but only if you’re stupid. I don’t think most people out there are out to get you,” she said.

Junior Olivia LaMagna, however, disagrees. “I think it’s disturbing. I think it is begging child molesters to talk to young kids. I think unmonitored, it can get pretty dangerous. I’m afraid to go near a computer that has it on it,” she said.

The site does take measures against inappropriate behavior to prevent predators. According to chatroulette.com, the official Web site of Chatroulette, users must be 16 years or older to use the Web site. Users involved in obscene, offending or pornographic material will be blocked and reporting a user will let the administrators know to take the appropriate steps to deal with the reported user.

There is, however, a discrepancy as the site only blocks users broadcasting offensive material for 10 minutes. Also, Hobson said that there is no way to enforce these rules, especially the age requirement.

“Parents have to enforce these rules for children because they can just lie about their age. The security measures by the company are not efficient because they’re unenforceable,” he said.

LaMagna agrees. “That’s not even a slap on the wrist. They can’t even enforce that,” she said.

Although Zhang said she acknowledges there are users who broadcast obscenities, she said she believes most people are normal.

“I think it’s a lot like real life. I mean, you see creepy old men in real life and it’s not that different. It’s okay as long as you trust them. I talked to a professor of Communications and Technology at Purdue and she said Chatroulette is very similar to social interaction, more so than instant messaging or texting. You get a good representation of what someone is like,” she said.

LaMagna said Chatroulette is completely different from meeting people in real life. “I think by nature, randomly pairing people up is unsafe. There’s no way to monitor that to make it okay. If I was a parent, I would never let my child near something like that. With so many uncontrollable variables, it’s asking for trouble,” LaMagna said.

Hobson said that while it can present several dangers, Chatroulette could be a great way to meet new people if used responsibly. “I don’t think the Internet is a bad thing as long as you’re responsible. It’s a great tool for educators and information, but with the large number of users, it provides predators with a large number of potential victims,” he said.

According to Hobson, avoiding giving out personal information is the best way to prevent Internet dangers. “A lot of it is just being responsible and keeping open lines of communication with your parents. I would go to say if you have to keep it a secret from Mom and Dad, there’s probably a good indicator you shouldn’t be doing that. Never provide personal information such as names, addresses, photos and phone numbers to strangers,” he said.

While it could be potentially dangerous, Zhang said she maintains it’s a good Web site.

“It’s like exercising judgment in real life,” she said. “It’s not that different from meeting someone in real life.”