Chat roulette.

CHAT ROULETTE.
The World Wide Web in the new millennium is unlike anything we’ve experienced in the past. From social networking sites,- Whether it’s the fad (come ghost town) that was Myspace, teenybopper utopia Bebo or international addictions known as Facebook and Twitter- , or peer-to-peer sites – such as Limewire, Kazaa or the one that started it all Napster- to video sharing phenomenon Youtube. This generation has tasted some of the most delicious and addictive eras of the web to date.

Whilst I’m a self confessed novice at the technological side of the world- I am most certainly not a novice of life. I know when there is something that hits the world that can change the world- either for good or for bad. Enter chatroulette.com.

This new forum of social networking is a revolution in webchat, in video chatting and in meeting people. The premise is simple create a website where people- young or ancient- can connect to without signing up, click on the website and like a roulette table, spin the dice and see who you end up chatting to.

Sounds fun right? But it is?

Because I’m just as much of a fan of fads as the next guy- I’ve got an account for almost everything possible, including much of the aforementioned sites- so when chatroulette came to my attention, I couldn’t resist, I had to try it. I had to give it a go.

*Cue happy Disney music*

With anticipation in one hand, nervousness in the other and excitement in my heart I logged onto chatroulette.com.

As mentioned prior, there is no sign up necessary, so you just jump on the sight, allow the site access to your webcam, and click “new game”.

“Interesting phrasing” I think to myself.

Alas, the game has begun.

This is what happens.

The new game is like spinning a roulette wheel in Vegas, you click the “New Game” button, and it randomly searches out other cameras from around the world, and drops you off at a random person’s webcam, if you don’t like what slash who you see, you simply press “new game” and you’re automatically delivered from them to a new recipient. You may think, yay! I’m going to get a young skater from Illinois, or an elderly man from Turkey, or even a sweet little ol’ lady from Whakatane- simply wanting to chat to you, and find out who you are, where you’re from, and what you’ve been up to.

Oh, how wrong you are!

Chat roulette is riddled with Sexual Predators from around the globe who jump on this site in the hope that young girls, or young boys, will be naïve enough to play a new game and get dropped off at their webcam, where they can be as since and as indecent as they wish to be- because essentially there is nothing you can do about it.

The website is ungovernable, unpoliced and untrackable- and because you needn’t sign up to participate it is quite possible for an old perverted pedophile to be dropped right into your young daughter/son’s living room ready to do the unspeakable to themselves just to get a kick.

Sure you can next them, but quite often in the two seconds it takes to click “new game” you’ve already seen more than you’ve wanted to see and more than you’d want your kids, younger siblings or even friends to observe.

More often than not, as the game plays, there are creepy men (and women) who are already waiting on the other side of the webcam- naked, doing sexually lewd acts to themselves, with camera positioned so that with immediate connection with their webcam you are seeing far too much than you’d bargain for.

Parents, siblings, friends- I caution you, do not be deceived, though the idea is fun and innovative- do not go near chat roulette. Naked people, sexually explicit men and women, predators are waiting on the other end.

Beware.

I wasn’t on the site for too long, but in the 30 minutes I was on with my two- over 25 years old- friends, we probably spent a lot of the time waiting to connect with someone and 1 in 3 cams were of a vulgar variety.

Exercise caution on the website people. We have the opportunity to shield those we love from this kind of indecent exposure from predators.

For those of you who are Christians- I heard a statistic yesterday that said around 60% of men (who attend church) regularly visit pornographic websites at least once a week. Do not be fooled- Pornography and these kinds of websites should set off warning bells.

For people who are just going to go to the site now because I explained this to you, (I know what humans are like) all I say is be very careful and please beware.

Thanks for taking a Joshua journey today.