Chatroulette To Log IP Addresses, Take Screenshots

littlekorea writes "Chatroulette, the strangely addictive online game in which users are connected via webcam and microphone to random strangers at the click of a button, has had enough of users exposing themselves to the unsuspecting public, among other disgraces. The founder of Chatroulette has announced the company has hired developers to collect IP addresses and take screenshots of those users breaking the rules."

Comments

And Then What Will You Do With It?

[eldavojohn]

Chatroulette, the strangely addictive online game ...

So you're strangely addicted to staring at male genetalia? I think we all just learned a little something about littlekorea.

That is by far the most positive review of that web site I have ever encountered. Personally I've used the service precisely once. Discovering what happened during that usage is left as an exercise to the reader.

The founder of Chatroulette has announced the company has hired developers to collect IP addresses and take screenshots of those users breaking the rules.

And then what? Actually it sounds like they have already done this:

"We've captured and saved thousands of IP addresses of alleged offenders, along with logs and screenshots which prove wrong behaviour.

"We are initiating a conversation with enforcement agencies and we are willing to provide all the information we have."

Are they going to press charges? Do you think that site created by a lone developer has the legal resources to do that against that many offenders? Do you really think any law enforcement agency has the resources to investigate thousands of complaints with little more than a screenshot of someone's junk and their IP address? It's the internet. Your effort is futile. What ever happened to the recognition software? Has that already fallen through? Too many false positives? Light problems?

Re:And Then What Will You Do With It?

[Chrisq]

Do you really think any law enforcement agency has the resources to investigate thousands of complaints with little more than a screenshot of someone's junk and their IP address?

Maybe if the IP address resolved to Whitehouse.gov. Don't you miss Bill Clinton?

Re:And Then What Will You Do With It?

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you really think any law enforcement agency has the resources to investigate thousands of complaints with little more than a screenshot of someone's junk and their IP address?

Maybe if the IP address resolved to Whitehouse.gov. Don't you miss Bill Clinton?

Number of my countrymen to be killed or wounded while Clinton nailed a fat secretary: 0. Number of my countrymen to be killed or wounded from the two wars started and unfinished during Bush's administration: 5,589 and rising.

And which one did we try to impeach? Yeah, I kinda do miss Clinton.

Re:And Then What Will You Do With It?

[ZeroExistenZ]

So you're strangely addicted to staring at male genetalia

No, it's serendipity, not knowing what (experience) you'll get next, it might be something way out of your frame of reference, which gives a sense of something possibly entirely new by the click of a button.

While for others it's a way to express themselves creatively, experiment and test the boundaries in a social setting without negative consequences.

You were quasi annonymous, you could reinvent yourself over while knowing your chatpartner wont see or meet you again if you don't want to, while testing how to entertain, shock or interact with people.

It's just normal that such a platform brings out also sexual fantasies and desires in people, but there's a whole lot more to such a platform imho.

fe. see the piano dude, as there are many more of these type of people.

Re:And Then What Will You Do With It?

[gazbo]

Personally I've used the service precisely once. Discovering what happened during that usage is left as an exercise to the reader.

You told a 13 year old girl to show boobs?

Re:And Then What Will You Do With It?

[sunking2]

That just doesn't say a whole lot about Bill's stamina.

Re:And Then What Will You Do With It?

[YrWrstNtmr]

Number of my countrymen to be killed or wounded while Clinton nailed a fat secretary: 0

While not nearly approaching Bush's exploits, we had many military actions during the Clinton years.
Somalia/Bosnia/Kosovo/Afghanistan/Sudan/Desert Fox in Iraq. And it was far more than '0' killed/wounded.

Re:And Then What Will You Do With It?

[clone53421]

That’s not necessarily true. It can be a valid defense, depending on the laws in your state. For instance...

MO Revised Statutes, section 566.020:

Mistake as to incapacity or age--consent not a defense, when.

566.020. 1. Whenever in this chapter the criminality of conduct depends upon a victim's being incapacitated, no crime is committed if the actor reasonably believed that the victim was not incapacitated and reasonably believed that the victim consented to the act. The defendant shall have the burden of injecting the issue of belief as to capacity and consent.

2. Whenever in this chapter the criminality of conduct depends upon a child being thirteen years of age or younger, it is no defense that the defendant believed the child to be older.

3. Whenever in this chapter the criminality of conduct depends upon a child being under seventeen years of age, it is an affirmative defense that the defendant reasonably believed that the child was seventeen years of age or older.

4. Consent is not an affirmative defense to any offense under chapter 566 if the alleged victim is less than twelve years of age.

In short, if the person was under the age of thirteen / twelve (depending on the particular law being violated), you have no defense of “I thought he/she was old enough” (yeah... right). However, if the criminality of the act hinges on believing the person to be 17 (the age of consent is 17), and you reasonably believed that they were 17 and consented to the act, that is a valid defense against criminal charges.

Re:And Then What Will You Do With It?

[GreatBunzinni]

I'm not an american nor I ever set foot on US soil but from where I'm standing, a treacherous attack on a docked frigate doesn't negate the legacy of a president which not only managed to get the country's accounting in order but also generated a surplus in the state's budget. Speaking from a country which contracted massive dept and which has to live with a deficit that comes close to 10%, I have to say that a presidency like that sounds pretty good in my book.

pr0n

[Speare]

So they're trying to rid the problem of flashers on Chatroulette, by capturing images? What happens when the flasher is a minor? Or even hint that some flashers are minors? Boom, easy way to get rid of Chatroulette.

Re:pr0n

[clone53421]

As long as they send it straight to the feds they’re just gathering evidence.

9 proxies

[jDeepbeep]

I went through them. Good luck.

Re:Too many dudes...

[elrous0]

Maybe if there were a lot *less* guys flashing their dicks, there would be a lot *more* women on the service.

Unintended consequences

[DNS-and-BIND]

Wow, the law of unintended consequences sure bit them hard? I mean, who would have guessed that combining anonymity with video cameras resulted in distasteful or illegal images? You would have had to be Al Gore to see that one coming. No ordinary person would have predicted this outcome.

Flawed business model = creepy users

[adosch]

What did Chatroulette think was going to happen when they thought diving into the realms of social networking and adding the element of live video feed of everyone who is on there to anyone wanting to look? It's, of course, easier for an exposer or behaviorally creepy basement dweller to crawl out of their cave online than it is in public.

...but enough of the social network rant. I'm glad to see Chatroulette policing up their mess and trying to enforce some sort of civil 'net etiquette, but someone is going to throw the privacy flag up on this one. Let's be real here: it's a bird's eye view directly into A LOT of homes. Regardless of the intention to track IP addresses and gather screenshots, I can easily seeing this getting abused if it isn't controlled or greed doesn't rear it's ugly head into this.

Re:The internet has RULES?

[NevarMore]

Yep, and if you violate them you can be sent to cyber jail.

http://failblog.org/2010/07/16/epic-fail-video-understanding-of-the-internet-fail-2/

Re:Too many dudes...

[bickerdyke]

shouldn't there simply be some kind of dickroulette for people who want to show/see them?

Come on.... there's EVERYTHING on the internet!

Proof: http://xkcd.com/305/

Re:Too many dudes...

[ElectricTurtle]

Go look up manroullette. It does exist.

chatroulette espionage

[magro]

You might not be aware of this but any user can collect IP addresses and record ENTIRE video footage from random chatroulette users. I explained how in my blog http://fernandomagro.com/security/chatroulette-espionage/ . Anyway the concept is really simple because an attacker can open an even number of connections to chatroulette (2,4,6,etc) and then redirect the streams to each other. Say, I open connection1 and connection2 then I capture stream from connection2 and dump it as my primary webcam to connection1 and I capture connection1 and dump it as my secondary webcam to connection2. Only a tiny bit of linux hacking is needed.

More like

[fishexe]

...terrible idea made hilarious by human failings. Who really wants to sit around talking to strangers knowing they will probably just hit Next right when you're starting to get interested? It's like it was made for the hopelessly desperate. The inclusion of penises is what makes the whole thing worthwhile, because now the rest of us get to hear about how the optimistic early-adopters got punked by the horndogs.