Omegle

Omegle

Omegle website [1] Type Online chat, voice chat, video chat Launch Date March 25, 2009 Status active Product Line Omegle Platform Web Website www.omegle.com

Omegle is a free online chat website that allows strangers from around the world to converse with each other. The site was launched in 2009 by programmer Leif K-Brooks, who was 18 years old at the time. Omegle's tagline is "Talk to Strangers!" Within its first week, it had over 1800 users and has grown to over 30 million users to date. Omegle's website is accessible through computers, phones, and tablets. The site does not require user registration. Its home page outlines that users must be older than 18 years of age or 13 years with parental permission.

Although Omegle was initially started as a way to have meaningful connections with people around the world, it quickly gained a reputation for concerns related to nudity, pornography, and privacy. Many reports of crimes related to sexual assault of minors and distribution of child pornography have stemmed from interactions that started in Omegle.

History

Leif K-Brooks, founder of Omegle

Omegle was created on March 25, 2009 by 18-year-old Leif K-Brooks, an aspiring computer science major at the University of Vermont. The name “Omegle” is based off of the phrase “error code omega," and the website was originally built in Python using the Twisted framework and ran on one server. K-Brooks originally developed the idea of Omegle to create a space where people could safely interact with those outside of their usual social groups. K-Brooks has not spoken to media outlets explicitly about himself or Omegle. However in 2010, K-Brooks revealed himself as the creator of Omegle on a Reddit thread and allowed Reddit users to ask him questions about the site.

After the creation of the website, K-Brooks proceeded to create a mobile application to allow users to access Omegle from their phones. K-Brooks developed the app himself in Objective-C. Today, the official app can no longer be found in app stores, but the website itself is suited to be used on mobile devices. Many unofficial versions of the app can still be downloaded.

In February 2020, Omegle garnered about 30 million site visits, with almost 35% of its users coming from the United States. Most of Omegle's traffic comes from direct searches to the website. Users who come to Omegle from other websites are usually referred from other chat websites and pornography websites.

Features

User can choose to text or video chat

There are many different ways to use Omegle. Users have the ability to choose to text chat or video chat with one other random person. Users do not have to register to be able to use Omegle.

Text

User can enter spy mode

If a user decides to chose the "text" version, they can either continue to be matched up with another person, or they can choose to enter spy mode. In spy mode, a third person poses a question to the user and their randomly selected partner, and the user and partner can discuss the question. The third person watches the conversation, but cannot join in. The user also has the ability to choose to be the person asking the question.

Video

User can choose between adult and unmoderated modes

If a user decides to use the "video" version, they can either participate in a moderated (default) video chat, a adult video chat, or a unmoderated video chat. To be able to participate in the adult or unmoderated chats, the user has to confirm that they are of 18 years of age or older. The adult version comes with a warning that the user will be viewing sexual material, while the unmoderated version brings up a warning that the user is more likely to encounter sexual material because of its unmoderated nature.

Extras

User can add interests

To be matched with someone who has similar interests, the user can opt to add some of their interests before they choose which chat version they will use. Omegle will then attempt to match the user with another person who has the same interests.

If the user is in college, they also have the ability to participate in the college student chat. The user can enter their college email address ending in .edu or .edu.XX or .ac.XX. Once the user confirms their email address through an email Omegle sends them, Omegle will then match the user up with another random college student. The user's match will only be able to see the domain of the email address, not the user's entire address.

Crime Involvement

Omegle has been involved in many crime news stories, most of which are related to child pornography and sexual assault of minors.

Child Pornography

• In January 2017, former school custodian Douglas Mehan, was arrested for finding and uploading child pornography on Omegle.
• In September 2017, Adam Junghans, a 25-year-old man was arrested for collecting sexually explicit pictures of minors on Omegle.
• In November 2019, Juan Carlos Ramon, a 34-year-old man was arrested for requesting pornographic images from underage girls for several years on Omegle.
• In January 2020, Andre Esparra, a 29-year-old man was arrested for receiving nine images of child pornography on Omegle and saving them for "later use."

Sexual Assault and Kidnapping

• In November 2014, Casey Lee Chinn, a 23-year-old man, was charged with 6 felony charges: two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct, two counts of kidnapping, and two counts of solicitation of a child to engage in sexual conduct against two 13-year-old girls he met on Omegle. After a month of communicating on other social apps, the girls agreed to be picked up by Chinn who proceeded to take them to his house and sexually assault them.
• In December 2018, Robert Alexander Kusma, a 33-year-old man was arrested for sexual assault of a minor he met on Omegle.
• In March 2019, Simeon Isaiah Crispin Steers-Smith, a 30-year-old man was arrested for soliciting a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl he met on Omegle.
• In August 2019, Adrian Gardiner, a 40-year-old man, was arrested for meeting with a 12-year-old girl he met on Omegle and engaging in sexual activities.

Ethical Issues

Privacy and Security

Stored Chats

Omegle is advertised as a completely anonymous chat site, however it is possible for a user to have their identity compromised. Omegle’s privacy policy states that records of text chats are stored for approximately 120 days. These records include a timestamp, IP address, ID cookie, and similar information. The storage of these records pose a vulnerability to the site. Indrajeet Bhuyan, a young cyber researcher, was able to figure out how Omegle saved chats and the specific location these records were in its server. Using a Python script, he was able to retrieve screenshots of chats. If a malicious person were to have these records and these chats included personal identifying information, a user’s privacy could be compromised.
After every Omegle text chat, users are given the option to save their chat and share link of the chat with their friends. Once a user decides to save a chat, a record of the chat is sent to Omegle's server and is stored for an indefinite amount of time. This is another vulnerability as users may have have been under the assumption that they were only sharing their information with one person, but could instead be sharing it with hundreds of people. It is also possible that users can screenshot text chats and video chats, or even use a third-party software to record the conversation.

Automated Bots

Omegle’s site is plagued by numerous chat bots. These bots are created by users to simulate conversation with other users of the site. There are even articles detailing the steps required to construct an Omegle chat bot. These bots spam advertisement links to users and can potentially introduce malware into a user’s device.

Inappropriate Content

Although Omegle outlines that users cannot be younger than 13, younger children who use Omegle without a complete understanding of the risks can be coerced into willingly giving their information to a malicious user.

See Also

• Anonymous Behavior in Virtual Environments
• Chatroulette
• Content moderation
• Cybersex
• Live Video
• Pornography