Omegle – Have a chat with a Random Stranger

Last week, I gave a talk at the middle school about what apps and sites are popular with kids. Last year I spent most of my time talking about Facebook, not this year. Kids are moving off Facebook to other sites. My talk focused on the big 5 sites but I also mentioned a few up and comers. One site, I am hearing a lot about is Omegle.

Omegle pairs up random strangers for a chat. Everyone is anonymous. On Omegle, you are identified as “YOU” and everyone else is “STRANGER”. Kids can chat with a stranger either via text or video. To kick off the conversation, they can ask a question or type in an interest. Based on this information, Omegle will pick a stranger for you. Kids can also allow Omegle to use their Facebook likes to find a compatible stranger. Once paired up, you and the stranger chat until someone chooses to disconnect. After chatting, kids can post or save their chat or just move on to a new stranger. Omegle is available as an app or on the desktop. Currently, the app only allows for conversations via text. On its website, kids can video chat or text.

I tried out Omegle. All of my chats began with “hi” or “hello” then some form of ASL – Age, Sex, Location. Depending on my response, the stranger either disconnected or asked for more information.

I tried adding a few interests and asking a question. I had the same conversation regardless of my question or my interests. I did not find anyone willing to have a non-sexual chat.

Teens and Tumblr – common tags lead to uncommon results

One of the first blogging sites I wrote about was Tumblr - Tumblr the new microblog on the block. It was over a year ago and I never did much with it. I liked the site but hated the amount of porn. My oldest, who has lots of friends on Tumblr, wanted to try it out. So, I decided to revisit Tumblr.

Tumblr makes it incredibly easy to set up a blog: sign up with an email, indicate your over 13, pick out a theme and your off. Many teens follow their favorite shows, movies and characters to find funny GIFs and photos. Unlike a traditional blog, there is no pressure to produce content. She can fill up her tumblelog with reblogs and quotes and never write a single sentence. 

Once they have a tumblelog, they can search for other blogs to follow. This is where they can run into trouble. Common hashtags can lead to uncommon results. An article in buzzfeed lists the 11 seemingly safe tumblr tags you should never, ever look at. The number one tag is #bbc. Since my kid is a huge Dr. Who and Sherlock fan, I was curious about this one. It is true. #bbc is not all pictures of Dr. Who and Sherlock. It isn’t every picture but out of 20 posts at least one was a penis.

I tried to eliminate these pictures. In settings, I enabled the “Browse tag pages in Safe Mode” to hide content from NSFW (Not Safe for Work) blogs. The problem is Tumblr relies on people to correctly designate their blogs and posts and many do not. Even with NSFW enabled, inappropriate blogs and posts still came up in my search.

I installed the add-ons Tumblr Savior and Webfilter Pro to my browser. I blacklisted obvious search terms. Again, these filters rely on users tagging their pictures correctly. With so many terms and variations, I could not successful block every penis picture.

I can see why teenagers love Tumblr. It is easy to set up and they can blog and reblog all their favorites. Teens on Tumblr should be careful about who they follow and their searches. Parents should test drive this site. Set up your own tumbleblog and conduct a few searches. If your teen is on Tumblr, talk with them about the seedy side of the internet. Let them know what your concerns are and what you want them to do when they see something inappropriate.

Liven up your technology talk with apps and games that teach online safety

With my oldest, I have many opportunities to talk about technology. She introduces me to Minecraft and I show her Twitter. Overall, we are hitting the important points and I only occasionally receive an eye roll. In fact, I am doing a better job with her than my youngest.

My youngest is by far the easiest one to talk to about technology. He still believes I know everything. The problem is he really isn’t online, yet. He will be soon and I want to make sure he understands how to protect his privacy and surf safely. But, I find it hard to start a dialogue when nothing comes up and my one-sided conversation sounds more like a privacy lecture.  

This weekend, I went in search of apps or games that we could use to jump-start our talks. It took a while but I found some that teach online privacy and safety. We played most of them and I listed all of them below. His favorite was the FBI’s Surf Island and one of my other children liked the Astro Circus. All of them are free.