Well I’m just glad Harry Mack managed to release his 100th episode of “Omegle Bars” this week. He decided to take a break from doing Omegle-based content at the right time, it seems.
For anyone who doesn’t know, Harry Mack’s a freestyle rapper. He has (had) a series where he’d ask strangers on Omegle to give him a handful of words and then create a full song out of them on the fly. And not just saying those words then immediately moving on like most freestyle rappers do; he actually creates entire verses on the topics he’s given and really raps around them. Plus he’d be calling out things the people were doing as they react to him, responding to things they say, mentioning things he can see in the room, etc, as he raps.
Here’s one of his freestyles that’s really stuck with me ever since I first saw it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehcA4zCeaPI
He takes what are some fairly negative, “cry for help” words from the girls and turns them into a really beautiful, positive rap overall. He’s a very positive guy in general, and I’ve watched him consistently since I discovered him. Binging his videos got me through a breakup, in fact.
My own experiences with Omegle have either been penises or just bland, and it’s not something I’ve used for many years as a result. But videos like Harry Mack’s show what wonderful things could come from it and I do think it’s a huge shame it’s gone. It feels like another part of the old internet’s gone, and that we’re moving even closer to the sanitised, heavily-monetised internet run by megacorporations. I hate that.
Can someone explain in short what problem people had about Omegle?
Was it that you can say things (and show things) there to a random person without any good possibility to trace it back to you because it’s anonymous and more “temporary” then something like Lemmy for example?
Or was it just a witch hunt without any real reasonable structure?
People argue that despite its moderation, it was pretty vulnerable to exploitation and sex abuse
Ok, sounds like the standard claim for everything to me to be honest.
It’s crazy to sometimes stop to think about how many nice things we could have if it wasn’t for pedophiles. Not a joke either, actually give it some thought.
A lot of people also use pedophiles as a basis for their nefarious plans. “Protect the children” is a rallying cry of the alt right, despite how many child rapists exist in the cult.
So the American mainstream pedophile streaming website got shutdown? Time to rejoice! It will be a good day when Chaturbate, Snapchat, Instagram and such sites get shut down too. Maybe the “freedom” irresponsible assholes will learn what they ended up doing to the open web.
Alright I’ll bite. How does an anonymous video chat website become a pedophile streaming website? Was there a specific event or what?
That sounds extremely ignorant, considering how well known this stuff should be publicly. This might help a bit. https://endsexualexploitation.org/articles/omegle-needs-accountability-for-facilitating-the-exploitation-of-children/
This is a large story of a minor exploited. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64618791
The crux of it comes down to random matchings of stream users, no screenings or age verifications for minors, despite the service owner Leif Brooks being well aware that the service is used by minors in significant numbers since probably a decade at this point. And he refused accountability or putting in systems that would prevent minor abuse of this kind, even though the service had no encryption and was public.
So because minors can use the service, it’s a pedophile service? Is the internet a pedophile service too? There isn’t any age requirement or verification to use it. Should it be shut down as well?
I don’t see why a website should be required to make sure their users follow the law.
So because minors can use the service, it’s a pedophile service? Is the internet a pedophile service too?
Minors have used Omegle for only one purpose. Can you tell me where are all the college lectures, nursery videos, art and craft videos, funny videos or other types of safe content regarding children on Omegle? You are intentionally distorting the argument to make Omegle look like some innocent service. It solely has had sexual minor content for a decade at this point, besides other innuendo videos such as the ones you see on paid OnlyFans profiles (uncensored digital prostitution, solo sex et al).
Minors using the internet services does not make it pedophilic. Minors can use most of the internet safely. If you make another deranged argument like that, you will get the banhammer. Talk sensibly, I do not like using mod powers.
Minors have used Omegle for only one purpose
Are you sure it isn’t you using it for just one purpose??
What is with the ad hominem style accusations? Are you an aficionado of that platform? I have never opened it to play any kind of content in my life.
Minors can use most of the internet safely.
I beg to differ. Minors can’t safely use the internet at all, it’s the internet. Every depth of the human psyche is mirrored onto it, and frankly any guardian letting a child onto it without at the minimum strong primers on its dangers is derilict of their duty. Which might have been excusable 20-30 years ago when everybody was confused about what the internet even is, but not so much in 2023.
If you make another deranged argument like that, you will get the banhammer.
Just for clarity, I’m not the person you said this to, but I think if you are out here threatening people with bans over a rhetorical question, you might want to take a break. Nevermind the disconnect between you saying you haven’t used it at all but purpoting to know exactly what kind of “content” was on it these last years, when it didn’t even really have content in the usual sense of the word.
Minors can and have used more or less most of the internet safely. What is most of the internet? Services like Omegle or Chaturbate or Stripchat surely are not on it. Minors have used social media all this while, and other than what Facebook/Instagram on behest of US capitalist machinery has done to minors,
- https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-knows-instagram-is-toxic-for-teen-girls-company-documents-show-11631620739
- https://gizmodo.com/leaked-facebook-docs-depict-kids-as-untapped-wealth-1847763431
, most services do not abuse human psychology to this degree. However, children’s minds are highly neuroplastic until adulthood, and a lot of the internet is damaging to the psyche of children, which is an entirely different discussion. If that seems like flipflopping, it is because internet safety has various degrees to it and the definition of safety varies from healthy usage to consumerism to addiction to gray area to developing deviant persona and even illegal uses.
It is fairly known how peer pressure wins over parental control on minor access to internet, so the “parent’s duty” argument is very flaky and invalid. Education on things rest of the society is freely using is not very conducive to children at the age of puberty (12-16), and 18 is supposedly the adult age. So is the argument now going to be letting kids do whatever they want by the time they are 18? Or will this be decided upon a combination of evaluation of mental age using tests related to Asperger’s, neurodivergence, ADHD and so on? How frequently will these tests be taken by kids? Will there be exposure of the child to concepts like “absolute American freedom” and various forms of consumerism? Because that is what the child will get exposed to, as soon as he/she meets people outside home, or goes to the market with parents.
if you are out here threatening people with bans over a rhetorical question
The reason I did not is because I see the blurred line between rhetoric and “slippery slope” argument that usually follows such rhetoric questions. Their argument comes off as distasteful, even though a whole decade of video streaming exists as proof of Omegle being a key mainstream hub for minor sexual abuse content, with no kinds of methods used by the evasive service owner to combat it. Read the link I supplied in above comments regarding that.
I know the types of content there not because I frequented that shithole of a service, but because vigilantes and watchdogs tend to investigate services in limit and for analysis to warn the society about it. Would you also label academic researchers of CSAM as seeking pedophile content? (Rhetoric that I will end in next sentence) If no, that is because it is easy to see the difference with a little common sense between one “researching” for the “sauce” and one researching to understand how the whole mechanism of service works to warn society about the type of content there exists. You should be able to see clearly that I am quite interested in such discussions without the moderator part.
U r aware that until e2ee and online anonymity exists, pedos WILL be active online? Forget e2ee. Every social network (including Lemmy, Matrix, Mastodon) has an active pedo userbase.
There is absolutely no way to completely censor pedos. Hence, the only thing that we can do is educate children about consensual sex, rape, etc… Basically something like a vaccination against sexual assault. It wouldn’t work every time, but it would at least statistically reduce the probability of child sexual abuse. Unfortunately, this is all that we can do.
Omegle actively allowed that disease to flourish, and has been for over a decade a mainstream hub for pedophiles. This is not some recent phenomenon. Chaturbate, Snapchat and such services allow the same, allowing pedophilia and bestiality creators. You think that’s by coincidence? The Fediverse platforms you mentioned have nowhere near as many, or even percentage wise in the ballpark of what the forementioned mainstream platforms have. They are dominated by that audience. Abuse of platforms exists, but abuse is never allowed to dominate a significant proportion of userbase. Lemmy, for example, has probably only 15-20 such micro instances that are defederated very well by everyone else.
Are you aware of this, or are just gonna call it slippery slope and end the argument?
Snapchat is e2ee from what I understand. How are they supposed to monitor what goes on there? I’m unaware of the Chaturbate platform. As for Omegle, look at the sheer amount of users. How exactly were they supposed to block every single dick that popped up? It’s a problem of the registration-less, anonymous chat model rather than Omegle itself.
Snapchat is e2ee from what I understand.
Then how does this happen? https://securityboulevard.com/2019/05/snapchat-workers-snooped-on-users-with-internal-tool/
Omegle attracted a certain kind of crowd with the anonymity ripe for abuse, and let it exist since atleast 2014/15 at this point I’d say. I never used these services myself due to the stigma, but have been aware on surface level how this crap is operated. There have been no screenings or age verifications for minors video streaming anonymously, and Brooks (service owner) refused accountability. https://endsexualexploitation.org/articles/omegle-needs-accountability-for-facilitating-the-exploitation-of-children/
Bro, you need therapy, you’re wayyy too invested in this
I did not know being vigilant in society is the same as OCD. But go on, you must satiate your own profound biases.
