Take a Spin and Win...A Naked Man?

Chatroulette: The Nice, The Strange and The Naked
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
By Jamie Wollberg

At Purchase, everyone is talking about the recent craze known as Chatroulette.com Users beware - unless you want someone to ask you to show them your “junk”, stay away from this site.

The website was created three months ago by a seventeen year-old from Russia, Andrey Ternovskiy. When logging onto the website you will see a few tips and rules listed regarding safety. The website states that you must be 16 or older to use the website and that, “Chatroulette does not tolerate broadcasting obscene, offending, pornographic material and we will have to block users who violate these rules from using our service.” However, hardly anyone follows those rules. Within five minutes of entering the revolting chat room site, I saw over five interesting male parts within inches of my face, along with a few users who asked me to show some skin.

The only positive aspects of the site are that there is a “next” button to make the male parts and other offenders disappear, and a “report” button. Those features come in handy, especially when a creepy, half-naked guy appears on your screen saying, “Hey, show me your bra and I’ll show you what you want.”

Remember the 90’s when AOL chat rooms were the cat’s meow? We spent hours on them, meeting strangers around the world, but Chatroulette is taking the fad to a whole new level. Sophomore, Samantha Kerzner said that she has not used the website and that her friends who have saw mostly people who were masturbating on camera. On the flip side, she mentioned they were able to talk to a nice girl from France who they ended up Facebooking. Student Natalie Jeanmary, had harsher words to say, “I think it’s a very disturbing site, that’s all I think.” Jeanmary also said that she has guy friends who use Chatroulette purely to see “boobs.” More positive and light-hearted thoughts came from Jackie Powell. She used the website after a bunch of her guy friends who convinced her to. “It’s not for me,” she said laughing, “It’s for anyone who doesn’t have anything better to do at one o’clock in the morning.”

Have we forgotten about Facebook, Myspace and Skype?! Granted, anyone these days can join one of those communication black holes, but at least there are stricter privacy policies. Furthermore, when you are on Skype, you are only talking to people that you already know. Kerzner thinks that the idea is cool, “…but, I think it’s obviously been taken advantage of and not in the right way.” This is clearly the case with so many users, the Web Ecology Project Survey said that 135,000 people can be on Chatroulette at once.

If you think that dangers is on the upswing on the Internet now; think about what will happen to the next generation. “I would slap them [my kids] upside the head…I don’t want any of my children to be on a site like that,” said Jeanmary in a serious tone. Sophomore Alyssa Cox, feels that, “It’s up to the parents [to monitor their children]; it’s not the Internet’s job to make sure that little kids aren’t looking at anything bad.” Take care when taking a spin on Chatroulette, but you’re probably better off meeting people the old fashioned way – attending one of the interesting club meetings on campus or checking out a show at The Stood.

Sources: New York Times
Blogs.wsj.com