Chat Roulette

Anyone ever gone on this?

Its quite amusing, but very disgusting at times too.... 

Basically, it just requires a web cam, you connect, you get connected to random people around the world for a chat... 

I've heard of it but not used it. I saw an article about how it's a huge concern for parents of teenagers in particular as the terms of use and safety protocols for underage users are virtually nonexistent.

Yeah, its really not very good for teenagers and younger, due to people who are disgusting and sick (though you can just blow past them to the next connection) and there are definitely not any controls  
However, there's a lot of people who are just wanting to chat or whatever and it can be interesting

I've heard that a portion of the "chatters" aren't fully clothed, so how do you screen for those? Eeeks.

ETA, just saw that blast past them comment, ewww.

No! I would not like this at all!! 

Haven't heard of it before, but I'm not very 'with it'.  Doesn't sound very nice though.

I don't think it will be around for very long, given that its got no controls and the world is full of sickos who like to go on their web cams naked for perfect strangers

I don't think it will be around for very long, given that its got no controls and the world is full of sickos who like to go on their web cams naked for perfect strangers

I think it's based in Russia so probably not subject to the same controls US/UK based websites are. 

I've used the site a few times, it's pretty horrific sometimes but ultimately, I think it's up to parents to monitor what their kids see on the internet.

has anyone seen Ben Folds' videos where he goes on and composes songs for each person that comes up?  he started off recording them from home but now he does it live nearly every night during one of his concerts, with a screen for the audience to watch and everything. 

I'm a high school counsellor...and we've been trying to educate our students about the dangers of it.  Plus asking why you need to be on the internet chatting to strangers who may have absolutely nothing similar with you or who could be totally gross.  Boards like these where you may not know anyone but at least has a purpose makes sense, but chat roulette doesn't to a lot of us...why not just go out and meet people in real life?  A bit of it is about respecting yourself as you may be faced with guys masterbating (approx 20% or more do so) and why put yourself in that position.  So that's what we talk about with them.

I think it's based in Russia so probably not subject to the same controls US/UK based websites are. 

I read an article about it last week. It was actually started by a teenage boy who's still in school. I recall reading something about him turning down offers to buy the site. Here's another article, he is from Moscow.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/18/roulette-russian/

I've used the site a few times, it's pretty horrific sometimes but ultimately, I think it's up to parents to monitor what their kids see on the internet.

I agree, but there are a lot of parents who aren't tech savvy and don't know how to monitor what their children are doing online as well as with their mobiles, and this is a big problem. Along with children finding ways around restrictions as well, as they often try to do. Some of my daughter's friends (from 12 years old) have use of webcams, so she wants one, I say heck no.