| Whatever it is, Chartroulette is both entertaining and addictive.
If you’ve ever Skyped with someone, then you are already familiar with the awkward experience that is synonymous with video chatting. Now imagine chatting with a total stranger, or multiple strangers, in rapid-fire succession. Sound like fun yet? Add a hint of speed dating drama and a pinch of chat room mischief, puree it together and you’ve got Chatroulette. It is something that is both difficult to watch, yet hard to leave. My past experiences on the site range from: strangers reading poetry, strangers asking me to flash them, strangers flashing me, familiar viral video feeds, occasional legitimate conversations, staring contests, and a lot of male anatomy. In fact, more than 25% of everything I stumbled upon would be rated XXX. Have no fear though, you can always ‘Next’ the crazy ones. |
 |
| The site is a few months old and was created by Andrey Ternovskiy, a 17 year old in Russia. It currently has about 21,000 users from around the world it at any point in time, and seems to continually grow.
So if you’re an adrenaline junky, if you have a strong stomach, or if you just like meeting random people… test your luck and play a little Chatroulette. Be careful, you might poke your eye out! |
| Running Tally (out of 220 ppl): |
| Girls: 20 | XXX: 55 |
| Guys: 200 | Real Conversation: 13 |
| No Front Teeth: 1 | |
| Nothing special: 151 |
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I totally get how this can be addictive but it shouts danger to me, given it will be a particularly attractive concept for the under 18s, who are experimentalists and will find it both intriguing and amusing… and therefore also attractive for those that are out for much darker reasons.
As a parent of a 10 year old internet addict (wonder where she gets that from. ahem), that concerns me; and I’ve already added the site to the Blocked sites list on her account.
But what about fellow parents of tweens that aren’t net savvy? The site says “You have to be at least 16 years old to use our service” but there are no measures to safe-guard this – no sign-up required – which means that most parents will be totally oblivious to the fact their kids are playing with this, and potentially getting themselves into all sorts of trouble; not to mention, potentially giving out personal details, addresses, phone numbers etc, in their naivety. Shudder.
I reckon it’ll be sooner rather than later that the people behind this site have a number of law suits on their hands – and let’s hope that happens before something tragic happens.
What is the exact difference between anterograde and retrograde amnesia?