Blog Post 3: ChatRoulette

I have heard about ChatRoulette but I’ve never actually been on it so I thought it would be interesting to check out. I was a little bit nervous at the idea of being paired up with random people and trying to have a conversation via webcam but knowing that I could leave the chat at any time made me feel more secure. I spoke briefly with a few different people and found it interesting that the majority were single men from the United States.

Knowing that you come across a lot of nudity on ChatRoulette, I tried to log-in during the daytime, assuming that people were less likely to engage in “R-rated” behavior. I read some crazy statistic that about 1 in 8 feeds on ChatRoulette involves nudity or controversial content. Daytime or not, there was still way more naked guys then I wanted to see. Considering this, I was surprised at how easy it was to start chatting with people. All I had to do was click “allow” to access my camera and microphone and then “scan” to initiate a conversation. There weren’t any questions about age so literally anyone with Internet and a webcam can get onto ChatRoulette. It’s scary to think that online or sexual predators could be using this as a forum to talk to underage children.

On a more positive note, if you haven’t seen the amusing YouTube video of that guy on ChatRoulette doing improv on his piano then check it out here!