A new website called 'Chatroulette' is fast becoming popular amongst teenagers and young adults.

It works literally like roulette.  The user connects their webcam, logs on, starts a "game" and is instantly Connected to another person.  The site displays the image from their webcam, the image from your own webcam, and a "chat" room on the right-hand side.  The person you are connected to could be anybody, of any age or any sex, from anywhere in the world.  

You can then choose to talk to this person, or simply click "Next" to be connected to another random individual.

The results of such openness are rather unsurprising.  The site has a substantial user base of sexually-charged men, hoping to encourage young ladies they are connected to reveal themselves, so that they might obtain some sexual gratification.  

The reverse is also occasionally true, but (as any user will observe) the male user base is far more likely to be participating in a state of undress, and encouraging the people to whom they are connected to do the same.  

And I stress: These men could be of any age, and are connecting, exposing themselves to, indulging in lewd conversations with, and encouraging nudity and sexual conduct from young women of any age.

The site was the brainchild of a 17-year-old Russian schoolboy, Andrey Ternovskiy.  He launched the site in November 2009 and the site grew rapidly from 50 users to 50,000 in the first month.  The site now has 1 million visitors per day.  Unfortunately it is the openness of the site, which was it's greatest strength and undoubtedly a noble intention, which has become its greatest weakness.

Chatroulette states that you need to be 16+ in order to use the site, but there is no barrier to prevent younger users from participating.  All you need is a computer with a webcam and internet connection, and it is entirely free.  The site's brief rules also include 'clothes', but this rule too is widely ignored.

The site's popularity amongst young people is also not a surprise.  Open, curious and sociable, teenagers are flocking to the site in huge numbers.  It is not unusual to see large groups of young people in front of the webcam, peering at the image of the person they are connected to, often in fits of giggles.  

Unfortunately, more often than not, the person they are connected to is more often not another teenager looking to connect to his peers around the world, but a naked man, exposing himself and encouraging them to do the same...

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