by Rachel Klein ‘22

Almost every teenager today knows about or has used the website Omegle, where people can chat or video chat with strangers on the Internet. Immediately after the site was launched in 2009, it was gaining hundreds of thousands of viewers per day. In more recent times, as a result of TikTok and everyone having limited social interaction during the pandemic, Omegle became a seemingly perfect way to make new friends. However, these “new friends” can come from anywhere and be any age.

Over the course of the pandemic, TikTok has become increasingly popular, with one billion active users, most of which being ages 10–19. It became a trend on TikTok to film funny or interesting interactions with people you meet on Omegle, further displaying its appeal to young children. What is not shown are the creepy encounters many users have had with adults, along with exposure to inappropriate and sexual content that can pop up on anyone’s screen, including the screens of those young children.

On the Omegle website, it states that users must be at least 18 years old, or 13 years old with parental permission or supervision. Although these words are in bold, they are not enforced in any way. Young teenagers, and even children younger than that, have been known to go on Omegle without parental permission because there is no age verification on the website. It is easy for them to chat with random strangers and see things they should not be exposed to at such a young age, such as extreme profanity and pornographic content.

Omegle has become the perfect platform for online predators to find their prey. While Omegle claims there is some sort of moderation of chats, the site is still unsafe. “Omegle video chat is moderated but no moderation is perfect,” states their website.