‘Chatroulette’ causes concern for some parents

By Melissa Erny
A high school student like Kelsey Hageman does it when she hangs out with friends. Alex Cooper says he uses it whenever boredom strikes. In college, Maggie Edwards uses it with her friends to prepare them for a night of partying. Frank Violante even gets on when his lectures hold no interest for him and needs something to do in class.
So what is this new “it” thing that has everyone talking? It’s an internet phenomenon sweeping the nation called Chatroulette and teenagers are hooked.
In order to participate, a person must go to www.chatroulette.com and have a webcam available. The site instantly connects you with a stranger using the site who could be anywhere in the world. This act of connection is commonly called a spin. You may then proceed to talk to this stranger via microphone or an online chat window next to the viewing screens of each camera. If a user is not interested, a pass option is available. This restarts the process of finding someone else. There are no screen names and studies show that pairings are completely random.
Violante, 19, was more than excited to share his experiences. He had nothing but positive things to say. “I met one of my new best friends on there. Me and her talk almost every day.”
However, not everyone has had such a pleasurable experience with the site.
“I’m not really too fond of it because you never know what’s going to come up on it. Some people are really creepy and you don’t know what they’re going to do on camera,” says Serena Timmerman, a 15-year-old high school sophomore. She prefers not to use the site because of this aspect.
Although it is connecting people across the globe more instantly and personally than ever before, many factors play into the program that people should be aware of. Anyone who use the site should be cautious of what could be on the other end and parents of children using it should know what their children are viewing.
Robert J. Moore, the CEO and co-founder of an on-demand database analytic and business intelligence startup called RJMetrics, posted data that his company collected based on 2,883 Chatroulette sessions last month.
Around half of the people researchers connected to on the site were from the United States with France being the second most common. 89% of the time spins result in a male alone. The majority of people using the site, 70% of users, are between the ages of 20 and 30.
One of the most controversial aspects of Chatroulette is the explicit content that can so easily be viewed. RJMetrics also analyzed these aspects of the site.
“Some users, which we have affectionately labeled ‘perverts’, fit into any of these three categories: appear to not be wearing any clothes whatsoever, are displaying explicit nudity, appear to be committing some lewd act,” says Moore. They found a pervert 13% of the time, less than 1% of them being female. This means a person is two times more likely to find a sign – an image a user has put up in place of their camera – requesting female nudity than he or she is to actually find it.
This has concerned parents furious.
Jeanine Mitchell sounded angry and disgusted at the very mention of Chatroulette. “There’s a problem with people flashing naked body parts,” she says. Being the mother of a daughter in college and two children in high school as well as being a speech-language pathologist helping children with autism at Onondaga Cortland Madison County Boards of Cooperative Educational Services, she strongly advises against any use of the site. She has repeatedly told her children not to use it because of the scandalous reputation Chatroulette holds.
Thomas and Bernadette Nihill have varying opinions on their college daughter and high school son using the site. Mr. Nihill knows the risks. He thinks that more research should be done before he lets his children use the site. “You don’t know what you’re gonna get.”
Mrs. Nihill agrees for the most part, but she believes that with more work it could be acceptable. “If it could be under control, I think it could be fine to do.”
For parents hoping for more safety features on Chatroulette, change is coming. Early last month, the 17-year-old founder of Chatroulette in Moscow, Andrey Ternovskiy, made an announcement about the clean up to MSNBC.
He announced that there is now a “Report inappropriate video” link that users can click to make him aware of a pervert’s Internet Protocol address so he can block his or her connection from the site. He comments in the article, “I have also been experimenting with new report system. CR should be clean from bad stuff now.”
People still disagree, however. In the same article, Perry Aftab, the executive director of WiredSafety.org and an attorney specializing in Internet privacy, states his thoughts. “I do not see that Chatroulette is doing what they need to do to protect the user. I recommend people stay away from that site.”
Approve or disapprove the fact remains. Despite skepticism this new technology has grasped teenagers and young adults all around the world and doesn’t look like it is letting go. Nothing can be done to stop it, so the best thing anyone can do is this: educate yourself and know the consequences so you can be aware of what you’re dealing with.