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The once-hyped social site is shuttering after years of controversy. Its death is a sign of the times.
Long before the advent of Instagram or TikTok, socialising online meant updating your Facebook status or booting up Omegle.
Launched in 2009, the latter was unique in that it allowed users to engage in anonymous, one-on-one video or text chats with strangers no matter their age or location.
While many teens dreamt of stumbling into a virtual chat with a celebrity, it was nearly always just a random stranger on the other end of the line, and for better or worse, Omegle instantly and intimately connected us with people we’d otherwise never know existed.
This element of surprise was sure to invite problems and, unsurprisingly, Omegle was always swathed in controversy.
Last week, the platform announced it will be shutting down after 14 years on the web. The decision comes after mounting claims of sexual abuse associated with the site, raising questions about the responsibility of online platforms and the changing landscape of social media.
As the platform became a cult phenomenon almost overnight, the dark side of its anonymity format quickly became apparent, with increasing reports of sexual exploitation surfacing over the years.
Announcing the decision to shut down, founder Leif Brooks said Omegle was ‘no longer sustainable, financially or psychologically’.
‘There can be no honest accounting of Omegle without acknowledging that some people misused it, including to commit unspeakably heinous crimes’.
When he initially launched Omegle, Brooks vision for the site differed vastly from what it was soon to become.
Wanting to create a site that allowed people to meet, Brooks built the platform based on what he saw as ‘the intrinsic safety benefits of the internet, users were anonymous to each other by default’.
At its peak, Omegle had around 73 million visitors a month. A large portion of these were teenagers who saw matching with strangers online as a ‘rite of passage’.
Those same teenagers have been sharing memories of growing up with the site since its closure was announced. It’s undeniable that Omegle played a role in millions of childhoods.
But Brooks’ ideals of an ostensibly safe digital environment were quickly thwarted. Of the millions of teens who used Omegle growing up, many are coming forward with horror stories of abuse and exploitation they experienced on the platform.
