A story on Mashable (the social media guide) discusses “ChatRoulette” a new “Random” Video Chat site that breaks a few of the principles that we’re trying to establish for Video Dating here at The 3G Dating Agency eg. an effective means of age verification and the moderation of stranger-stranger content.
The Mashable article discusses a Vimeo Video produced by Casey Neistat that talks of how interesting it is to connect with others, and “especially women” over video but it also reveals how the open nature of the service has led to audiences that are “71% Male, 15% Female and 14% Pervert” even at 4pm in the afternoon on a working day.
Referring to the “Chatroulette” service as a “sensation” and “all the rage lately” I think they’re being very irresponsible, naive and ignorant of the safety issues at play here. Paedophiles have very sophisticated warped minds and are going to be increasingly abusing the access this gives them to minors. Kids everywhere deserve to be protected from it.
The website (www.chatroulette.com) is definitely not content appropriate for work – unless you’re a registered law enforcement officer looking to catch some paedophiles and/or inform minors of the risks they’re exposing themselves to.
If you share my concerns please join me and make a report to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre and the Internet Watch Foundation now. I’ll update this post with any (publishable) feedback I get from the authorities with regard to my enquiry.
