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Innovation or humiliation?

February 24, 2010 on 10:55 am | In Other services | 9 Comments

I saw an ABC News story on our front page yesterday about a new site called chatroulette.com. It’s a webcam chat site where you are randomly paired with another stranger with whom you can video chat. Webcam chat communities are not a new concept, but the randomness of chatroulette is.

Started by a 17-year old in Russia, the site stirs up many discussions about inappropriate content, age requirements, and the effect it can have on users, who may be dismayed by people skipping over them once they’re connected. One comment on youtube says “Chat Roulette = Lowering self esteem, waste of time.” Chatroulette seems like the old “Hot or Not?” trend, but taken to the extreme.

Watch the ABC News report below. Is this a positive or a negative innovation? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

9 Comments »

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  1. There are some great chatroulette pranks on wtfroulette.com.

    Comment by wtfroulette — February 24, 2010 #

  2. “It’s easy to use, it’s free, and there are no barriers to keep kids off the site” Well, she just described the vast majority of adult content on the Internet. So why is Chatroulette any different? Because it’s the latest craze and the media has to sensationalize something to make a story — as usual.

    Have they ever tried using Bing or Google to make basic adult oriented queries? I suspect not, because they’d find the result much worse than Chatroulette.

    I also suspect the “authority figures” they interviewed aren’t up-to-date on the latest scientific lit, that’s suggesting those very social outlets online which they condemn are actually making people /more/ social, rather than less so.

    Comment by Another example of why you cant trust the media — February 25, 2010 #

  3. I saw that on the news, some of the people on there were naked..of course it was blurred out but you could tell they were naked

    Comment by James — February 25, 2010 #

  4. http://omegle.com/ is the same concept, but text only. And this has spawned the sometimes hilarious, sometimes disturbing site http://www.omegleconversations.com/

    Personally, I’m for it. It’s certainly not for everyone, but I think anything that enables people to chat with someone with a different point of view is an overall good tool for humanity. And for the truly weirdos and creeps, you always have the power to disconnect.

    Comment by Dave Cortright — February 25, 2010 #

  5. I have the on/ off button in my hand and I control what comes in my house and home. This is not coming in anywhere near me.

    Comment by Henryk — February 25, 2010 #

  6. Hopefully this will be just another fad that graciously goes away. I must agree with Robin Roberts of ABC…..parents, this is one more nightmare to keep you busy defending your children from more internet garbage. My wife and I did not have children…….it’s crap like like this that makes us very grateful we chose not to in the younger times.Yes, we WERE fortunate to having lived our teenage years without the internet in the super 60’s!!.

    Comment by Carl Diffenbaugh — February 28, 2010 #

  7. Any new technology has it’s positive and negative. It is sad to see people not making good use of innovations like this and abuse it.

    Comment by SearchForMission — February 28, 2010 #

  8. look at the kettle calling the frying pan,(yahoo mess)for years yahell never done anything about bots and spam and now they cover over 85% of all your chat rooms, i suggest u get yr own house in order before asking fr comments on chatroulette .

    Comment by andy — February 28, 2010 #

  9. Apparently, this latest internet craze called chat roulette isn’t good for kids. For the fact that ones can connect to the whole world chatting with strangers and friends anonymously without the need for you to register or login is a no go area for kids because they will get to see a lot of nudity and porn pics from socially deprived people.

    I will agree with Dave Cortright who says site like this is not mean for everyone.

    With best chatroulette clone called http://www.SpinTheCam.com offering more rich functionality than chatroulette and shuffliepeople, a lot of social deprived people can randomly and chat live with strangers all over the world

    Comment by deyes — March 11, 2010 #

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