Omegle, the free online chat site, was shut down in 2022 following a series of lawsuits.
Omegle is a website that allows users to connect with each other through a text-only chat interface. This site is completely free to use and has been since it launched in 2009. It’s one of the oldest websites of its kind and has been used by millions of people all over the world. In 2022, however, Omegle was suddenly shut down due to several lawsuits filed against it by parents whose children were using the site. Here’s everything you need to know about Omegle and why it was suddenly taken offline.
What is Omegle?
Omegle, or “omegle” for short, is a website that allows users to connect with each other through a text-only chat interface. The site was created by Israeli-American computer programmer Tom Pashby in 2009 as an alternative to Chatroulette, which had gained widespread notoriety at that point for allowing users to see random people naked on camera without their knowledge.
Why did Omegle get shut down?
The biggest problem with Chatroulette (and later sites like Omegle) was that there wasn’t any way for users to control who they connected with on camera – they could be connecting with anyone at all! As such, many people took advantage of this lack of moderation and used these sites as platforms for sexual harassment or worse.
In 2010 alone, there were over 50 arrests made across the United States after men were caught using Chatroulette (and later Omegle) as part of an organized crime ring where they would pose as underage girls in order to get men from around the world on camera so they could blackmail them into sending them money.
Parents also began filing lawsuits against these websites because their children had begun spending hours upon hours chatting with strangers online instead of doing homework or hanging out with friends outside.
This led many parents around
