Internet Minors and porn: should we worry about Omegle, which is in the sights of the government?

Omegle: this name may not mean anything to you, and yet it is in the sights of the government.

On Wednesday, the office of the Secretary of State for Children, Adrien Taquet, announced that it was going to report to the courts facts of exposure of minors to pornography and pedocrime on this platform. The association La Voix de l’Enfant told the Parisian that she was going to seize the Arcom (Audiovisual and digital communication regulatory authority).

The concept of Omegle: an instant messaging service linking two Internet users, anonymously and randomly, in order to allow them to converse in writing or on video. Yes, like a certain… Chatroulette, which had already caused controversy when it appeared in 2009. Omegle was created the same year, and even predates it, since it was launched in March by an American teenager from Vermont, Chatroulette next in November.

Restricted access… in theory

If the platform is talking about it again, it is because a survey carried out by the online site Kool Mag (which presents itself as a media intended for “dads”), published last week, denounces the fact that teenagers who use it often find themselves face to face with adults – mainly men – who show off or masturbate there, without the interactions being really moderated or supervised.

“You must be over 13 and have a parent’s consent if you are between 13 and 18,” the site’s homepage says. In fact, no verification is carried out. The founder of Kool Mag, Baptiste des Monstiers, says he met “dozens” of children and teenagers aged 9 to 15 hanging out on Omegle on a Wednesday afternoon.

According to the “dads’ media”, Omegle would be more popular since the confinements linked to the Covid-19 pandemic: in March 2022, the platform would have recorded more than a million monthly connections in France. “At our level on 3018, I cannot say that there is a jump at the time of confinement”, tempers Samuel Comblez, child psychologist and director of operations of the Association e-Enfance, which manages the Help line against digital violence, intended for children, adolescents and parents.

But “overall, minors have been going more on the Internet since the first confinement, because there has been more possibility left by adults to go there. We were taken by teleworking, many children found themselves immersed in the world of the Internet without support, everything increased in terms of digital access, ”he explains.

How do minors land on the site?

As Thomas Rohmer, founder of the Observatory of parenting and digital education interviewed by West France, Samuel Comblez believes that young people are not fooled by Omegle: “They suspect that they will come across people who have behavior that is out of the ordinary, even scandalous. They can clearly see that these are not suitable sites for them, especially since the graphical environment is from another era. And they are aware that it is not easy to make friends with a site that offers a very ephemeral side to contact, they have plenty of other opportunities for that”.

According to Kool Mag, the current enthusiasm of young people for Omegle comes from the fact that some of their favorite influencers have made an appointment with their community on the platform, to exchange in a fun way. What the videographer and streamer Squeezie had already done in 2016 to celebrate the five years of his Youtube channel.

Influencer Just Riadh, who recently started an exchange with his followers on Omegle, told Kool Mag he realized the dangers of the platform and believes he won’t do it again. It highlights the apparent lack of effective moderation on the site, despite what the terms of use may claim. Kool Mag also notes that malicious users have many ways to circumvent moderation.

A report that comes late

In the United States, Omegle has already been involved in legal cases, recalls 20 minutes. A report in France while the site has existed since 2009 is it not a bit late? “We can be delighted that in 2022, there will be a reaction from the government. What we can regret is that there is a reaction when the audience for this site is very very low. There would have been cause for concern 13 years ago, when it was fashionable and there were fewer social networks, ”observes Samuel Comblez.

“Before our investigation, Omegle would never have been the subject of any report to the Pharos platform”, the portal for reporting illegal content on the web, assures Kool Mag. Who notes that the processing of a report can in any case last several weeks. And it is not always easy to collect evidence or to find the trace of anonymous Internet users.

Furthermore, “judicial time is not digital time. What interests me, as a child psychologist, is to be able to act now. If, in six months or a year, the site is closed, what about the kids who have connected in the meantime? We have a responsibility towards them”, considers the director of operations of the Association e-Enfance.

Potentially dangerous platforms for minors are legion

For him, the focus on Omegle is like the tree that hides the forest. Firstly because the platform is far from being the only one in its category: “We should perhaps talk more about automated and anonymous social networks which are at risk of connecting young people with older people”.

Secondly, because the exposure of minors to pornography and pedophile crime today passes through multiple channels, and Omegle is far from being the most obvious. “There are plenty of other ways to find pornography. We could also put all the video game sites on trial where children think of themselves as being in a certain age community and are much less suspicious. The parents will not be alerted at all, but it is unfortunately a gateway to pedocrime. Ditto on TikTok, Instagram… I’m not saying there’s no danger, but if we want to be serious in our fight, let’s give ourselves the means. »

What if your child goes on this type of platform?

Omegle, like other similar online chat platforms, is not listed as a porn site, and therefore is not automatically blocked by parental control software. A first track can be to manually modify the software parameters.

However, it is possible that your offspring have had access in one way or another to this type of site and face deviant behavior. So how to react? Samuel Comblez advises to talk about it, without getting into endless debates but simply by questioning his children. “If we don’t talk about it, it suggests that it’s not a problem. We have to position ourselves, we need adults to regain their presence in the digital world of young people. Talking about the subject leaves the child with the idea that he has an aware parent in front of him, that he is a potential interlocutor just in case”, explains the psychologist. “One of the first reactions of children when they see this type of adult behavior is to think that their parents are doing the same thing”, hence the importance of being able to reassure them.

The discussion also makes it possible to recall that these sites, normally accessible from the majority, are not made for minors, and to insist on a form of prohibition. “Even if a young person goes there – the problem of prevention, that if we tell them no, they will want to go even more – it allows them to be able to go there with a little reserve, caution, and s ‘he is shocked, to say to himself that it is normal because it is not made for him, ”underlines Samuel Comblez.