Millions of Omegle users will no longer be able to chat online after the hugely popular site suddenly went offline overnight. This service, which was introduced in 2009 by tech entrepreneur Leif K-Brooks, placed random users in combination in online chat rooms where they can simply interact and talk about their thoughts on the hot topics of the day.
During recent years – and with most of the world stuck at home during the pandemic – Omegle suddenly boomed in popularity attracting over 70 million users per month.
However, this good fortune had a darker side, with the denunciation in order to provide paedophiles with the possibility of chatting with children.
In fact, Omegle has been discussed in more than 50 cases against child sex offenders in recent years.
Leif K-Brooks now says he no longer has the time, money and strain to keep the site online and has made up his mind to shut it down.
“There can be no fair explanation of Omegle without acknowledging that other people have misused it and committed heinous crimes,” K-Brooks said in a post that now fills his website.
“As much as I wish the cases had been different, the strain and cost of this bout, coupled with the existing strain and cost of running Omegle and combating its misuse, are too high. Frankly, I don’t need to have a heart. attack when I was thirty. “
Many users have taken to X (formerly Twitter) to express their sadness at the shutdown, with one called Sky saying: “Omegle has been discontinued?!!Rip. ” While another, Dylan, added: “This is devastating news for Omegle fans. “
News of the closure comes as major social media platforms will now have to protect young people online through them from recommended friend lists to prevent them from being contacted through hairdressers, Ofcom said.
The new online safety regulator has published its first draft codes of practice under the Online Safety Act, which was signed into law last week.
The first codes focus on illegal material online – such as child sexual abuse material, grooming content and fraud.
According to the code, larger platforms will be required, by default, to ensure that young people on their sites are not presented with lists of recommended friends, do not appear on other users’ lists, their location data is not visible to other users, and other people outside of their agreed-upon connections cannot send them direct messages.
Ofcom is expected to publish additional codes in the coming months on other online safety spaces, such as recommendations for adult sites on how to keep young people away from destructive content that peddles things like suicide or self-harm.
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