One of the things the pandemic has taught us is that no matter how close we are to someone or how much we love someone, if we’re asked to live with them for 24 hours, every day, for months at a time, it can get pretty depressing and suffocating. Moreover, it can sometimes be hard to find a silver lining. Sometimes we need someone new to talk to for a change. Sometimes we need someone neutral to open up to, to discuss things with. Someone who doesn’t already have an opinion on our life or problems.

In that sense, Omegle feels like the perfect tool to do just that. A person can anonymously log in, and chat with a completely random person without having to reveal their real identity. If they feel uncomfortable, or if they don’t feel like talking anymore, they can easily disconnect without having to explain their departure. It seems too good to be true. It seems just perfect. Except it’s not. 

Internetmatters.org describes Omegle as  “a video-chatting website that pairs random users identified as ‘You’ and ‘Stranger’ to chat online via ‘Text’, ‘Video’ or both. A user can also choose to add their interests, and Omegle will try to pair a user with someone who has similar interests. If not, you could meet anyone. Chats are anonymous unless the user states who they are, it’s free and no account sign-up is required.”

Omegle was created by Leif K-Brooks, an 18-year-old, mostly out of boredom and curiosity. The website was officially launched on Mar. 25, 2009, and a video chat feature rolled out in 2010.

The site allows users to anonymously chat with a random stranger, while simultaneously also providing them with the option to narrow their choices of the people they want to talk to by allowing them to add specific interests. The video chat has a similar format.

Even though Omegle seems like a good idea, and in some ways it is, the execution and user base are anything but good. 

To begin with, Omegle has no age verification system in place. The site states that a person must be 13+ with parental permission or 18+ to access the site, but there aren’t any specific verification protocols in place to verify a user’s age or credibility. In essence, anyone can join Omegle. Even a 10-year-old. All they have to do is check two boxes that ask them to confirm that they’re either an adult or have parental permission, and they’re good to go.

This leads us to our second point–Omegle is full of people who say or send inappropriate stuff, both in the text and in the video feature.  The lack of safety protocols makes it easy for anyone to access the site and allows them to do as they please including saying racist slurs, cyberbullying, passing sexist and homophobic comments, as well as saying inappropriate and creepy things. In fact, Omegle has a warning on their page, that cautions users against possible predators on the website.

The interesting thing is, that even though Omegle has a banning system in place, it’s extremely easy to bypass, and the banning system is not super accurate in the first place. Omegle bans a user using their IP address, and one can just “unblock” themselves if they access the site through another device, or use a VPN. The bans are also not long; sometimes they are even just a few days or hours long. 

It can be argued that people can do as they please on the site because it’s an anonymous chatting platform, so what do you expect? But, that’s not true, considering the website clearly states that the platform should not be used to discuss inappropriate content, and it also redirects people to a different website if that’s what they want to do. 

Nonetheless, I think that just telling people what to not do, without taking any measures to actually ensure that those rules are being followed, is ineffective. 

In my opinion, Omegle could put forth a stronger age verification system, so that younger people don’t have access to the website, and hence don’t get manipulated into giving out personal information, or doing something inappropriate, like the 15-year-old girl from Stearns County, Minnesota, who was manipulated into doing inappropriate acts, in exchange for money, with a 34-year-old man who she met on Omegle. 

I also think Omegle could add more moderators who could moderate chats so that people would get fewer chances to engage in inappropriate or uncomfortable conversations. Though, even if that’s not possible, at least having an age verification system would mostly eliminate the possibility of minors being groomed or sexually exploited online. 

Omegle could be a great site, only if it implements proper protocols, to prevent any sort of dangerous acts. 

Photo courtesy of UNSPLASH.COM