Dangerous Website
The dangerous website Omegle has recently come to our attention.
Omegle is banned from Apple Apps and Google Play. It can be accessed only through its website which can be googled. Omegle has been around since 2009 and it is an extremely dangerous and disturbing platform that is incredibly easy for children to access. This free website offers online chat with random strangers via text, voice, or video.
About Omegle
A user outlines a few of their interests and is then connected to a random stranger to initiate either a text chat, voice chat, or a video. There is the option to use monitored and unmonitored forums. With around 25,000 people worldwide ready to chat with your child at any given time, and with some of these being predators and many purely there for sexual purposes, there is a real cause for concern.
Omegle is a highly dangerous website because:
- No account signup is required - users can join a chat immediately and are automatically paired with a complete stranger.
- No age verification - it says users must be 13+ with parental supervision and permission but does not check.
- No effective moderation - claims to use 'AI and human moderators' but there is little to no evidence of this.
- No reporting or blocking features - users are unable to report inappropriate behaviour. Offending users can continue to use Omegle freely.
What are the risks?
The following risks are very real threats that any user could be exposed to on Omegle:
- Seeing distressing, violent, or highly sexualised imagery without warning.
- Grooming by strangers who ‘trick’ them into performing inappropriate actions.
- Pressure to remove clothing, reveal personal information, or send sexual images.
- Malicious links or spam that could make them vulnerable to hackers or scammers.
- Catfishing or cyberbullying, which could cause emotional or mental duress or fear.
- Intimate images or videos being recorded without their consent or knowledge.
- Someone obtaining their IP address.
How to keep your child safe online
Some things you can do to help your children stay safe online as recommended by the NZ Police include:
- install software on your computer which either blocks restricted content so your children cannot access certain sites, or monitors activity so that you can review online behaviour (remember - anyone can erase a search history)
- do not allow your children to use the computer in private areas of your home
- know who your children are making contact with online. If they are not your children’s actual friends then question their cyber friendship
- know which social networking sites your child is on and what information they are posting
- check that your children understand the dangers of posting personal information on social networking sites
- if you or your child becomes suspicious about a person online, stop contact immediately.