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Omegle Was Forced to Shut Down by a Lawsuit from a Sexual Abuse Survivor

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Re: Omegle Was Forced to Shut Down by a Lawsuit from a Sexual Abuse Survivor

#21

Post by 3cats-in-a-coat »

dmitrygr wrote: post #5

Please punch a hole on your “once again, a lack of parenting being solved by something other than better parenting” card.

I don't know how you understand "parenting" but it's not supposed to involve 24/7 second by second monitoring of a teenager's life.

It's complicated. I don't blame Omegle, but sometimes there's no one to blame, except the perpetrators.

Now, thanks to AI, we could recreate Omegle and make it safer, like detect children using it, and detect abusers. Of course this may trigger an arm's race of filters. But I think we have avenues to try.

Re: Omegle Was Forced to Shut Down by a Lawsuit from a Sexual Abuse Survivor

#22

Post by ForkMeOnTinder »

alephnerd wrote: post #17
mattigames wrote: post #13

Pretty sure Facebook, Twitter and TikTok have all already been involved in more than one first meeting between rape and homicide victims and the wrongdoers, why haven't they been closed? The lighthearted guess is that is because they fight against such evils taking a lot of preventive measures, the cynic in me and what I believe more likely is that they are seen as "too big too fail", like some bizarre form of small…

> why haven't they been closed Because they try to mitigate CSAM with moderation. Moderation is not censorship despite what some HN big brains might think

This comment seems to imply Omegle had no moderation, and that is false.

https://www.omegle.com/

> I believe in a responsibility to be a “good Samaritan”, and to implement reasonable measures to fight crime and other misuse. That is exactly what Omegle did. In addition to the basic safety feature of anonymity, there was a great deal of moderation behind the scenes, including state-of-the-art AI operating in concert with a wonderful team of human moderators. Omegle punched above its weight in content moderation, and I’m proud of what we accomplished.

> Omegle’s moderation even had a positive impact beyond the site. Omegle worked with law enforcement agencies, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, to help put evildoers in prison where they belong. There are “people” rotting behind bars right now thanks in part to evidence that Omegle proactively collected against them, and tipped the authorities off to.

--

The real reason, of course, is that Facebook can afford an army of lawyers, but Omegle can't.

Re: Omegle Was Forced to Shut Down by a Lawsuit from a Sexual Abuse Survivor

#24

Post by runnr_az »

3cats-in-a-coat wrote: post #21
dmitrygr wrote: post #5

Please punch a hole on your “once again, a lack of parenting being solved by something other than better parenting” card.

I don't know how you understand "parenting" but it's not supposed to involve 24/7 second by second monitoring of a teenager's life. It's complicated. I don't blame Omegle, but sometimes there's no one to blame, except the perpetrators. Now, thanks to AI, we could recreate Omegle and make it safer, like detect children using it, and detect abusers. Of course this may trigger an arm's race of filters. But I think we ha…

Maybe... but is all the effort worth the reward for the risk?

Re: Omegle Was Forced to Shut Down by a Lawsuit from a Sexual Abuse Survivor

#25

Post by spondylosaurus »

maplant wrote: post #18
Always_Anon wrote: post #12

If you used Omegle for more than 30 seconds, you'd know it was filled with sexual predators exposing themselves to children. I'm surprised it lasted this long. I'm sympathetic to the creator, I don't think tools should be banned because there are bad users, but Omegle's user base has its reputation for a reason.

yeah, I see a lot of people crying out here about the diminished freedom of speech, but did any of ya'll actually use this? It lasted for maybe a month after its launch as the way it was intended. After that - it was used 90% by perverts

Dating myself here, but my friends and I would go on Omegle together in middle/high school (usually at sleepovers after the host's parents had gone to bed) and I was always the one responsible for making sure whoever we connected to wasn't some guy jerking off into his webcam.

I think I'd usually have to connect and disconnect two or three times before I found another human face and not a, uh, head. Although sometimes we'd have a seemingly normal conversation for a bit and then whoever we were talking to would pan the camera down and reveal that he was cranking it.

Fun stuff!

Re: Omegle Was Forced to Shut Down by a Lawsuit from a Sexual Abuse Survivor

#26

Post by alephnerd »

ForkMeOnTinder wrote: post #22
alephnerd wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why haven't they been closed Because they try to mitigate CSAM with moderation. Moderation is not censorship despite what some HN big brains might think

This comment seems to imply Omegle had no moderation, and that is false. https://www.omegle.com/ > I believe in a responsibility to be a “good Samaritan”, and to implement reasonable measures to fight crime and other misuse. That is exactly what Omegle did. In addition to the basic safety feature of anonymity, there was a great deal of moderation behind the scenes, including state-of-the-art AI operating in concert w…

Not at the bare minimum needed as a number of Omegle users have mentioned on HN.

Re: Omegle Was Forced to Shut Down by a Lawsuit from a Sexual Abuse Survivor

#27

Post by whoknowsidont »

maplant wrote: post #18
Always_Anon wrote: post #12

If you used Omegle for more than 30 seconds, you'd know it was filled with sexual predators exposing themselves to children. I'm surprised it lasted this long. I'm sympathetic to the creator, I don't think tools should be banned because there are bad users, but Omegle's user base has its reputation for a reason.

yeah, I see a lot of people crying out here about the diminished freedom of speech, but did any of ya'll actually use this? It lasted for maybe a month after its launch as the way it was intended. After that - it was used 90% by perverts

[flagged]

Re: Omegle Was Forced to Shut Down by a Lawsuit from a Sexual Abuse Survivor

#28

Post by mattigames »

alephnerd wrote: post #26
ForkMeOnTinder wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment seems to imply Omegle had no moderation, and that is false. https://www.omegle.com/ > I believe in a responsibility to be a “good Samaritan”, and to implement reasonable measures to fight crime and other misuse. That is exactly what Omegle did. In addition to the basic safety feature of anonymity, there was a great deal of moderation behind the scenes, including state-of-the-art AI operating in concert w…

Not at the bare minimum needed as a number of Omegle users have mentioned on HN.

But at least you agree that is because big companies have enough money to buy enough moderation correct? So in the best case scenario is jut another part of society that small companies are not allowed to participate if they are not rich enough.

Re: Omegle Was Forced to Shut Down by a Lawsuit from a Sexual Abuse Survivor

#29

Post by KomoD »

garciasn wrote: post #20
kylebenzle wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Children actually were not allowed to use the site. By that logic you could say the same thing about every single porn site.

I’m sorry, but as far as I know, for the longest time there wasn’t even a blatant warning about being under 18. According to the BBC, it was only after “Alice” filed the lawsuit that they added a checkbox saying you had to be 18+. S: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64618791

For a very long time it was 13+ with parental permission, otherwise 18+

Re: Omegle Was Forced to Shut Down by a Lawsuit from a Sexual Abuse Survivor

#30

Post by foogazi »

3cats-in-a-coat wrote: post #21
dmitrygr wrote: post #5

Please punch a hole on your “once again, a lack of parenting being solved by something other than better parenting” card.

I don't know how you understand "parenting" but it's not supposed to involve 24/7 second by second monitoring of a teenager's life. It's complicated. I don't blame Omegle, but sometimes there's no one to blame, except the perpetrators. Now, thanks to AI, we could recreate Omegle and make it safer, like detect children using it, and detect abusers. Of course this may trigger an arm's race of filters. But I think we ha…

AI is no substitute for HI in this case
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