Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

wired.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 124 posts

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

#31

Post by dragonwriter »

kylebenzle wrote: post #15
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.

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

> Children actually were not allowed to use the site.

Children 13+ were formally allowed to use the site with parental permission until after the lawsuit at issue was filed, but even that restriction was just, I think, a pro-forma fine print footer notice to provide CYA against COPPA requirements on sites that were directed at kids under 13.

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

#32

Post by anigbrowl »

superkuh wrote: post #8
hfjjbf wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but did they pull their dicks out or ask you to undress? Telephone just isn’t a valid metaphor here.

Yeah, especially since the vast majority (90%) of sexual abuse is done by people well known to the family of the abused (most likely the family itself). It's really hard to do forced physical sexual abuse over the internet when all that has to happen to end the interaction is a click.

Consent isn't a defense to statutory rape, and it doesn't work here for the same reason.

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

#33

Post by LZ_Khan »

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…

Legal fees? It's probably not a crime if something illegal happens over your platform, but resolving it in court is extremely costly.

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

#35

Post by dragonwriter »

mattigames wrote: post #28
alephnerd wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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.

Small companies can participate, as long as their moderation resources are proportionate to their scale.

Yes, if they aren't, you are going to have more liability problems, just like if you operate a theme park with inadequate maintenance staff to prevent the rides from flying apart and killing guests.

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

#36

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#37

Post by DoreenMichele »

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.

Parents could generally do a better job helping their children learn about consent and having their boundaries respected from birth as a means to help protect them. This is something most people seem to think is not important and many people simply don't do.

It's common for adults to simply make a lot of decisions for kids in a way that is "convenient" for the adult and they seem to not notice this has significant psychological consequences which impact sexual situations and cause other issues.

But I wouldn't pin this strictly on parenting. I think society has broader issues than just parenting which foster issues of this sort.

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

#38

Post by hakdbha »

mattigames wrote: post #28
alephnerd wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[dead]

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

#39

Post by buzzdenver »

whoknowsidont wrote: post #27
maplant wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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]

Exposing yourself without consent is a crime in most places. Omegle was full of that. Watching porn is obviously voluntary.

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

#40

Post by alephnerd »

mattigames wrote: post #28
alephnerd wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If I post CSAM on HN I am 100% going to be reported and sent to jail. HN has only 2-3 mods, yet I don't see a plethora of old men's schlongs on here.

Yet Omegle made more money and had more users than HN ever would, but consistently failed at moderation.

> small companies are not allowed to participate if they are not rich enough

It's been open knowledge to anyone who's been in middle and high school since 2010 (like yours truly) that Omegle is filled with creepy old guys.

There are plenty of small social media startups from that era that never had as much of a pedo presence as Omegle.

Post reply on HN