Chat Roulette
By: Import User
Updated: March 13, 2010
If you're a parent and haven't heard about a new web site called 'chat roulette', you'll want to read on.
The idea of 'chatroulette.com' is to allow anyone to meet a complete stranger on the web and chat with them on a web cam. When you log on you are randomly connected to another person. You can choose to chat, or with the click of the mouse, move on to someone else.
But when we tried it, we found after just a few clicks, that most of those on line were men, and most of what they were doing was disgusting. One guy had no pants on.
So we went to the FBI in Charlotte, North Carolina where Supervisory Special Agent Coleen Moss and the Cyber Crime Unit was already well aware of 'chat roulette'.
"Typically, as we find with any new technology, criminals, or in this particular case, perverts, find a way to use it to meet their needs as well," Special Agent Moss said.
There is a disclaimer on the site that says users must be at least 16 and that obscenity is not allowed. But despite the disclaimer, there is no way to enforce it and there is no federal law on the books now to stop it. For now, it is going to again be up to parents to be aware.
"Talk with you children about what you think is appropriate or not appropriate for them to be doing on-line," Special Agent Moss said.
It is vital that kids and teens learn to never give out any personal information about themselves or where they are located. Monitoring software can be used to block 'chat roulette' and sites like it.
