On November 9th, Omegle, a platform initially created to help connect strangers through video chatting, was shut down. Although initially created in America, Omegle could be used throughout the world. Omegle had been operating for fourteen years, until a 22 million dollar lawsuit was brought up against them. As a result, during the settlement process, Omegle had made the decision to shut down. The founder of Omegle, Leif K. Brooks states that he never intended for it to turn out the way it did; however, he does not deny some of the crimes that Omegle was facilitating.

The lawsuit brought against Omegle was by a 22-year-old woman who had disclosed that when she was eleven years old, she was sexually exploited by a man for three years. The lawsuit argued that Omegle’s lack of safeguards to prevent sexual predators actually in turn empowered sexual predators to continue their acts through the site. This is just one of many cases against the site. In just the past few years, there have been around fifty cases regarding claims against sexual predators on Omegle. Following the settlement of the lawsuit, Brooks decided that it was time to shut down the site that had been behind all of this.

When news began to spread about Omegle’s shutdown, many people began to reflect on their own time on Omegle, remembering the kinds of content they had been exposed to. One individual’s reflection on the site was “Omg, some of the things I saw on there …” one friend messaged me after it shut down. “Totally forgot about Omegle! Feel like I blocked it out lol. I think a lot more people used it than would like to admit.” Many were glad about the shutdown due to the immense amount of sexual content that the site had made accessible to young children. On Omegle, there were no controls on what kind of content you’d be exposed to. It wasn’t just sexual content that individuals were exposed to but also self-harm which can be quite disturbing for individuals to witness. One explains his experience as “I used to go on Omegle just with my mates,” he said. “Over the years using it, I’ve seen two people appearing to self-harm.” He wasn’t sure if the videos were pre-recorded and played on screen or not. “Either way, it’s still really traumatic for anyone to see.” 

Many people complained about the lack of parental control on this site for years. Furthermore, the anonymity of the site enabled sexual predators to hide behind a screen. Brooks stated that  the anonymity of the site was meant to prevent predators from finding people on social media and harassing them. 

Brooks released this statement stating “Unfortunately, what is right doesn’t always prevail. As much as I wish circumstances were different, the stress and expense of this fight– coupled with the existing stress and expense of operating Omegle and fighting its misuse–are simply too much. Operating Omegle is no longer sustainable, financially nor psychologically. Frankly, I don’t want to have a heart attack in my thirties.” He expresses his sorrow for the crimes  committed through the use of Omegle and shares that his original intentions for Omegle were just to create new friendships.