I know I recently said that I wouldn’t be doing that many stories about social media anymore. I mean Kik is on its way out and you can find stories about Snapchat on my Twitter feed. However, there is one platform that will almost always get my attention and that’s Omegle.
For those of you who may not be familiar with Omegle, it is a website (not an app) where people can engage in video chats with random people. Omegle’s own slogan is “Talk To Strangers!” Because of its semi-anonymous nature, Omegle is another tool of choice among predators and child porn collectors. I also get more traffic on this website from people looking for information about Omegle than probably any other platform. A lot of those searches are ‘Will I get arrested from Omegle?’ but I digress.
Omegle’s age check is simply a button asking if you’re 18 because no underage kid ever lies on the internet. Their own Terms of Service even state you can be 13 to use their service.
That brings us to 25-year-old Adam Junghans of La Crosse, Wisconsin. He was arrested for allegedly being in possession of over 2,000 images of child porn. He reportedly claimed that he received many of the images from Omegle. Whether or not he meant he recorded kids he met on Omegle or received them from other child porn collectors is unclear. That’s right, Omegle is also used by child porn collectors to trade with each other which Junghans has also allegedly admitted to.
As I mentioned, Omegle is a website and not an app. It can be accessed on just about any internet-enabled device. It used to be that only home computers and laptops with webcams could enable Omegle’s video chat but recently Omegle began testing video chat for mobile as well.
So again, if you’re not monitoring our kids’ devices for websites like Omegle you’re leaving an open window to your kids’ lives that predators could use.
Real Crime with Trench Reynolds 