Difference between revisions of "Chatroulette"
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[[File:Chatroulette-logo1.png|thumb|text-top|alt="Bandcamp Logo"|Chatroulette Logo]] | [[File:Chatroulette-logo1.png|thumb|text-top|alt="Bandcamp Logo"|Chatroulette Logo]] | ||
| − | '''Chatroulette''' is a video-conferencing website that spontaneously connects strangers from around the globe using web cameras and chat rooms. Once the user is randomly paired with another user, many actions can be taken: click next, video chat, or text chat. The | + | '''Chatroulette''' is a video-conferencing website that spontaneously connects strangers from around the globe using web cameras and chat rooms. Once the user is randomly paired with another user, many actions can be taken: click "next", video chat, or text chat. The "next" button ends the current connection and pairs the user up with a new person; users can continue clicking "next" to shuffle through different users until they are satisfied with their pairing. Being passed up in this fashion is called being "nexted." |
| + | These chat rooms allow people to interact as they wish - there are no censors or filters to inhibit people from being vulgar or offensive.<ref>http://dialogues.rutgers.edu/all-journals/doc_download/2-dialogues-journal--volume-vii#page=206</ref> | ||
==History== | ==History== | ||
| − | The website was first launched on November 2009 by a 17 year old | + | The website was first launched as "Head-to-Head.org" on November 2009 by a 17-year-old high school student in Moscow, Russia named Andrey Ternovsky.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatroulette</ref> The inspiration for Chatroulette came from the various video chats Ternovskiy had with his friends on the [[Wikipedia:Skype|Skype]] platform. Because Ternovskiy's friends didn't like the site, he advertised on forums. People started to use it, but Ternovskiy thought the name wasn't right, and after watching a scene depicting prisoners of war being forced to play Russian roulette in the ''The Deer Hunter'', he bought the Chatroulette domain for seven dollars. |
| − | + | ||
| + | When the site first launched in November 2009, it registered approximately 500 visitors per day.<ref>http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/one-on-one-andrey-ternovskiy-creator-of-chatroulette/</ref> One month later, this number had jumped to 50,000.<ref>http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/one-on-one-andrey-ternovskiy-creator-of-chatroulette/</ref> By the beginning of March, Chatroulette boasted a user-base of approximately 1.5 million users. 33% of them were from the United States and 5% from Germany. Ternovsky ran the site from his bedroom, working alongside four programmers who worked virtually. The site's main source of income came through advertising links to an online dating service.<ref>http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/17-year-old-chatroulette-founder-mom-dad-the-site-is-expanding-a-681817.html</ref> | ||
| + | |||
| + | One of the first things that garnered popularity for the site was a Brazilian soccer posting a notice inviting like-minded people to Chatroulette to talk about the sport. Hundreds of people logged on, and at that point, made up about 50% of the website's user-base. However, instead of the original intent of meeting up online and talking about the sport, "they took off their clothes". <ref>http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/05/17/100517fa_fact_ioffe?currentPage=all </ref> | ||
| + | |||
==Demographics== | ==Demographics== | ||
[[File:Gender1.jpg|thumb|text-top|Piechart by Gender]] | [[File:Gender1.jpg|thumb|text-top|Piechart by Gender]] | ||
| − | In a study done by Tech Crunch done in March 2010, approximately 50% of all Chatroulette spins resulted in connecting a user with someone in the USA. The next most likely country was France | + | In a study done by Tech Crunch done in March 2010, approximately 50% of all Chatroulette spins resulted in connecting a user with someone in the USA. The next most likely country was France at 15%. The study also indicated that on average in sessions with only one person in the frame, 89% of users were male while only 11% were female. Only 8% of the spins showed multiple people in the webcam frame, and the likelihood of females appearing in a group is 1 in 3, but for males is 1 in 12. Female prevalence on Chatroulette is so low that a user is more likely to be paired with a session in which no one is in the frame than a session with only one female. Additionally, 1 in 8 chat sessions were found to have objectionable content. Frames with objectionable content were further broken down to study the "pervert rate" by country, with the United Kingdom outranking other countries with a "pervert concentration" of 22%. <ref>http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/16/chatroulette-stats-male-perverts/</ref> |
==Media appearances== | ==Media appearances== | ||
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==Criticism== | ==Criticism== | ||
[[File:213244-chatroulette_original.jpg|thumb|text-bottom|alt="Bandcamp Logo"|Screenshot of a Chatroulette session]] | [[File:213244-chatroulette_original.jpg|thumb|text-bottom|alt="Bandcamp Logo"|Screenshot of a Chatroulette session]] | ||
| − | + | Because Chatroulette doesn't require user registration, there has been a lot of criticism surrounding the web-conferencing site. The site has developed a reputation for displaying lewd images in chat sessions, and is often a platform for "cyber sex". This especially has drawn a lot of attention in the media, due to the lack of enforcement on age restrictions. In CNET news, an article warns parents to be wary of Chatroulette's alarming images and indecent exposure.<ref>http://news.cnet.com/8301-19518_3-10454519-238.html</ref> Sam Anderson, a writer for ''New York Magazine'', refers to Chatroulette as "chaotic and untamed", and describes how some people he encountered on the site shamelessly engaged in sexual acts on camera, some displayed obscene images, and one even showed a picture of a man who had hanged himself. | |
| − | Because Chatroulette doesn't require user registration, there has been a lot of criticism surrounding the web-conferencing site. The site has developed a reputation for displaying lewd | + | |
<ref> http://nymag.com/news/media/63663/index1.html</ref> | <ref> http://nymag.com/news/media/63663/index1.html</ref> | ||
| + | |||
===Chatroulette's attempts to improve=== | ===Chatroulette's attempts to improve=== | ||
| − | Because of all the attention | + | Because of all the negative attention surrounding the site's pornographic content, Chatroulette has responded by encouraging users to be at least 18 years old, and stating that the site prohibits "pornographic" behavior. Users can also report other users for behavior that offends them. If that user gets three complaints, the user is temporarily banned from using the site. <ref>http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/17-year-old-chatroulette-founder-mom-dad-the-site-is-expanding-a-681817.html</ref> In an effort to further combat this problem, Chatroulette also tried applying an algorithm that screened users who violated their video chat policies, in addition to creating a Safe Mode feature. However, in August 2012, the company took down the Safe Mode feature, and instead explicitly stated in their terms and conditions that nudity is not allowed on the site. There is now a pop-up window explaining these new rules to users of the site.<ref>http://www.roulettechatsites.com/2012/08/chatroulette-deletes-safe-mode-options.html</ref> |
==See Also== | ==See Also== | ||
Revision as of 02:12, 4 November 2012
Chatroulette is a video-conferencing website that spontaneously connects strangers from around the globe using web cameras and chat rooms. Once the user is randomly paired with another user, many actions can be taken: click "next", video chat, or text chat. The "next" button ends the current connection and pairs the user up with a new person; users can continue clicking "next" to shuffle through different users until they are satisfied with their pairing. Being passed up in this fashion is called being "nexted."
These chat rooms allow people to interact as they wish - there are no censors or filters to inhibit people from being vulgar or offensive.[1]
Contents
History
The website was first launched as "Head-to-Head.org" on November 2009 by a 17-year-old high school student in Moscow, Russia named Andrey Ternovsky.[2] The inspiration for Chatroulette came from the various video chats Ternovskiy had with his friends on the Skype platform. Because Ternovskiy's friends didn't like the site, he advertised on forums. People started to use it, but Ternovskiy thought the name wasn't right, and after watching a scene depicting prisoners of war being forced to play Russian roulette in the The Deer Hunter, he bought the Chatroulette domain for seven dollars.
When the site first launched in November 2009, it registered approximately 500 visitors per day.[3] One month later, this number had jumped to 50,000.[4] By the beginning of March, Chatroulette boasted a user-base of approximately 1.5 million users. 33% of them were from the United States and 5% from Germany. Ternovsky ran the site from his bedroom, working alongside four programmers who worked virtually. The site's main source of income came through advertising links to an online dating service.[5]
One of the first things that garnered popularity for the site was a Brazilian soccer posting a notice inviting like-minded people to Chatroulette to talk about the sport. Hundreds of people logged on, and at that point, made up about 50% of the website's user-base. However, instead of the original intent of meeting up online and talking about the sport, "they took off their clothes". [6]
Demographics
In a study done by Tech Crunch done in March 2010, approximately 50% of all Chatroulette spins resulted in connecting a user with someone in the USA. The next most likely country was France at 15%. The study also indicated that on average in sessions with only one person in the frame, 89% of users were male while only 11% were female. Only 8% of the spins showed multiple people in the webcam frame, and the likelihood of females appearing in a group is 1 in 3, but for males is 1 in 12. Female prevalence on Chatroulette is so low that a user is more likely to be paired with a session in which no one is in the frame than a session with only one female. Additionally, 1 in 8 chat sessions were found to have objectionable content. Frames with objectionable content were further broken down to study the "pervert rate" by country, with the United Kingdom outranking other countries with a "pervert concentration" of 22%. [7]
Media appearances
- The New York Times
- The New Yorker
- New York magazine
- Good Morning America
- Newsnight
- Tosh.0
- The Daily Show with Job Stewart
Criticism
Because Chatroulette doesn't require user registration, there has been a lot of criticism surrounding the web-conferencing site. The site has developed a reputation for displaying lewd images in chat sessions, and is often a platform for "cyber sex". This especially has drawn a lot of attention in the media, due to the lack of enforcement on age restrictions. In CNET news, an article warns parents to be wary of Chatroulette's alarming images and indecent exposure.[8] Sam Anderson, a writer for New York Magazine, refers to Chatroulette as "chaotic and untamed", and describes how some people he encountered on the site shamelessly engaged in sexual acts on camera, some displayed obscene images, and one even showed a picture of a man who had hanged himself. [9]
Chatroulette's attempts to improve
Because of all the negative attention surrounding the site's pornographic content, Chatroulette has responded by encouraging users to be at least 18 years old, and stating that the site prohibits "pornographic" behavior. Users can also report other users for behavior that offends them. If that user gets three complaints, the user is temporarily banned from using the site. [10] In an effort to further combat this problem, Chatroulette also tried applying an algorithm that screened users who violated their video chat policies, in addition to creating a Safe Mode feature. However, in August 2012, the company took down the Safe Mode feature, and instead explicitly stated in their terms and conditions that nudity is not allowed on the site. There is now a pop-up window explaining these new rules to users of the site.[11]
See Also
External Links
References
- ↑ http://dialogues.rutgers.edu/all-journals/doc_download/2-dialogues-journal--volume-vii#page=206
- ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatroulette
- ↑ http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/one-on-one-andrey-ternovskiy-creator-of-chatroulette/
- ↑ http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/one-on-one-andrey-ternovskiy-creator-of-chatroulette/
- ↑ http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/17-year-old-chatroulette-founder-mom-dad-the-site-is-expanding-a-681817.html
- ↑ http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/05/17/100517fa_fact_ioffe?currentPage=all
- ↑ http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/16/chatroulette-stats-male-perverts/
- ↑ http://news.cnet.com/8301-19518_3-10454519-238.html
- ↑ http://nymag.com/news/media/63663/index1.html
- ↑ http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/17-year-old-chatroulette-founder-mom-dad-the-site-is-expanding-a-681817.html
- ↑ http://www.roulettechatsites.com/2012/08/chatroulette-deletes-safe-mode-options.html
